Symphony of the Wild
by ivantmyburd
Summary: Two years after the worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla were reunited, the Heroes of Regeneration awaken in a world not their own, with no memory of how they got there. Just what awaits Lloyd and company in the vast wilds of Hyrule? And where has Link gotten to?
1. Chapter 1

**_Tales of Symphonia, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,_ and all their contents belong to their respective owners.**

 _Prologue: The Great Plateau_

Chapter 1

 _..._

 _...Open your eyes..._

 _Open your eyes..._

 _Open your eyes._

 _Wake up, Lloyd._

The unfamiliar voice in the teen's mind stirred his sluggish consciousness, and his heavy-lidded eyes cracked open. The gray blur he beheld slowly came into focus, revealing an array of small, blue lights against a darkened ceiling.

Lloyd frowned. It was an interesting sight, but not one he recognized. _Where am I?_ he wondered. He sat up to look around, and he was, to say the least, alarmed by why he found.

He was in a large, shallow, elaborately decorated basin in a dark chamber, clad in nothing but a pair of undershorts and dripping wet from head to toe. A fog or mist obscured the edges of the room, but he could just make out a glowing pedestal shining in the gloom nearby.

"Uh... Hello?" he called out softly. "Colette? Genis? Zelos? Anyone?"

No answer came. The only sounds in that chamber came from him.

 _This has gotta be a prank of some kind_ _,_ he decided. _Zelos might pull something like this. Let's see, the last time I saw him was..._

The thought trailed off as he tried to recall, without success. As a matter of fact, he could not remember seeing any of the others recently. To his dismay, his latest memory was leaving home with Colette to find and destroy the world's Exspheres. That had been some time ago - too long for him to have simply forgotten everything since then.

 _... Oh, just my luck,_ he thought, irritated, as he carefully pulled himself out of the basin. _Not only do I wake up in a place I don't recognize,_ again. _This time, I forget everything that happened recently. AND I'm practically naked,_ he added, shivering.

* * *

Genis jumped backward when the glowing pedestal suddenly moved at his approach, and he almost slipped on his own wet footprints.

Reflexively, he reached out with his half-elven senses to find out what was causing the motion. If it had surprised him to find that he could not detect any ambient mana when he first woke up, it was only slightly less alarming that there was no mana moving the pedestal, either.

A circular section of the top of the pedestal extended outward a short distance, revealing more glowing blue lights on the sides of it. The sound of a turning millstone filled the chamber as the section rotated a quarter turn. Finally, a rectangular portion of the pedestal flipped over to reveal an orange and blue eye-shaped design. This smallest piece folded toward Genis on a hinge, the orange lights on it slowly blinking at him.

Once he felt sure the whole arrangement had stopped moving, Genis crept forward again for a closer look. The female voice he had heard upon waking up spoke to him again:

 _That is a Sheikah Slate. Take it. It will help guide you._

Genis looked around, trying in vain to find the source of this voice. He was a thinker; he was not about to just follow the directions of a disembodied stranger when he had no idea where he was or what was going on. Heck, he would have been dubious had it been Zelos, or even Lloyd, who had asked him to take this "Sheikah Slate."

Although... he had looked around the rest of the room, and there did not appear to be anything else he could do.

Hesitantly, the half-elf reached out and took hold of the slate. It offered no resistance as he pulled it from its place.

He turned it over with both hands; the side opposite the colored one turned out to be blank, but after a moment, the same eye shape - all blue this time - appeared on the surface.

"Whoa," he breathed. _Is this some kind of magitechnology? But then... why doesn't it have any mana?_

Before he could wonder any more about it, the pedestal moved again, reversing its earlier motions, and the stone slab set into the wall behind it was lifted away in pillar-shaped sections. Genis peered through the opening; a dark tunnel loomed up ahead.

* * *

"Aw, _man_ ," Zelos moaned to himself. "You can't expect the beautiful Zelos Wilder to be seen out in public in this garbage, can you? What the heck happened to _my_ clothes?"

For all his grumbling, however, there was nothing to be done about it. He could pretend to like running around in his boxers, but with no one else around, there would have been little point to it. He grudgingly donned the worn-out clothing; even if it did not fit well, at least it was somewhat comfortable. As a bonus, the pants came with a belt he could hang his slate on.

"Now, then," Zelos mused once he was dressed, "anything else in here? A sword? A shield, maybe?"

He double-checked the open chests and the splintered remains of the barrels he had found in the tunnel. Finding nothing else useful, he continued on to the far end of the tunnel to what recent experience told him was a locked door.

"Well, great," he sighed as he leaned against a nearby glowing pedestal. "Now what?"

A woman's voice spoke, as if in answer:

 _Hold the Sheikah Slate up to the pedestal. That will show you the way._

Zelos raised one eyebrow and smirked. "Whatever you say, babe," he responded playfully as he retrieved the slate from his belt. Clearly, whoever had brought him here had all the cards. He had little choice but to play along for the time being.

The slate had not yet touched the pedestal's surface when a flash of blue light passed between the two, and the shape of a blue eye appeared on the pedestal. Glowing text appeared below it.

Authenticating...

Sheikah Slate confirmed.

A low rumbling shook the tunnel, and Zelos crouched, alert for danger. Blue lights on the door revealed yet another blue eye, just before the door retreated, section by section, into the surrounding walls to flood the tunnel with what could only be daylight. The Tethe'allan Chosen straightened up again, squinting, with one hand shielding his eyes from the excessive light.

Before his vision could adjust, more voices filled his ears.

"Zelos?"

"Zelos! You're here, too!"

"Are you alright?"

"It seems we're _all_ here, then."

Zelos broke out into a gigantic, silly-looking grin as he realized who all had spoken. "Hunnies!" he cried joyfully, and he stumbled forward blindly into their midst, arms outstretched. He had not gotten far before something suddenly struck him in the face and knocked him flat on his back, dazed. An all-too-familiar silhouette appeared over him.

"Hands to yourself, you idiot!" Sheena yelled at him.

"Aw, but I can't help myself!" Zelos whined, still smiling as he pushed himself up. "You guys are just so-" His eyes adjusted, and his grin faded. "Oh. Miss Jubblies, that outfit does your amazing figure no justice..."

Sheena winded him with a swift kick to the gut for his trouble.

Raine looked around the room again. Not counting the one that apparently led outside, eight tunnels led into the chamber. She herself had emerged from one of them to find Lloyd and Colette already there, wearing clothes much like the ones she had found and bearing identical mysterious Sheikah Slates. Shortly afterward, another tunnel had opened up to admit Genis, followed by Sheena, Regal, and Presea. As Regal had pointed out, Zelos' arrival meant their entire party was accounted for.

"I'll ask again for the latest arrivals," she said diplomatically. "Is everyone all right?"

"I'll be good in just a sec," Zelos wheezed as he fought to get his breath back.

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I think we're fine, Professor." He turned to the redhead and offered him a hand. "I don't guess _you_ know how we got here?"

"Nope, sorry," Zelos answered as he was pulled up to his feet. He looked over the group, noting their similar garb and the slates they all carried. "But if I had to guess," he muttered, "I'd say this is some trick by Cruxis or the Renegades."

Lloyd flinched, horrified. "What? No, that can't be!"

"Zelos," Presea murmured in her soft monotone, "we defeated Cruxis, and their survivors are on Derris-Kharlan. The Renegades were disbanded."

The redhead folded his arms. "I know, I know, but think about it. Our little journey to save the world is the only thing that ever connected all of us."

Genis scratched his head. "Well, that _is_ true, but-"

"And that's not all," Zelos continued, and he retrieved his slate from his belt. "What about these things? Cruxis, the Desians, and the Renegades are the only ones we've met who have tech on this level."

He waited for someone to challenge his logic. To his surprise and satisfaction, nobody did. Lloyd, Colette, and Genis all looked to Raine, silently asking her to reveal the answer to their quandary, but the professor was as much at a loss as they were. Regal, Presea, and Sheena each appeared lost in their own thoughts.

Zelos returned his slate to his belt and rested a hand on his hip, ready to declare the case closed. Before he could speak again, however, the ghostly female voice from before reverberated through his consciousness again:

 _Heroes of Regeneration, our light has been stolen from us. Now, you are the light that must shine upon Hyrule._ _Now, go._

"All right, where are you?" Lloyd asked, irritated, as he glanced around the room again, trying to locate the speaker.

"That voice..." Genis pondered. "She called us the Heroes of Regeneration..."

Sheena shrugged. "I kinda doubt Cruxis and the Renegades would be that polite to us."

"Then... who or what is Hyrule?" Presea wondered.

"Maybe it has to do with something that happened after we merged the two worlds," Colette volunteered. "Something during the time we all forgot."

Raine nodded. "That seems to be the most likely answer. I don't think we'll learn anything by talking about it here, though."

"Indeed," Regal agreed; funnily enough, after having met him in Tethe'allan prison garb, the others found his worn shirt and pants looked natural on him. He gestured to the tunnel leading outside. "We should have a look around and see where we stand."

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah, I think we've done all we can in here. Let's go."

The group entered the tunnel, climbing up a flight of steps and helping each other to the top of a wall standing between them and the exit. Soon, the tunnel walls around them opened up and they found themselves outside, standing on a grassy hill. Lloyd trotted out ahead of the group and found himself at the edge of a high cliff. What he saw took his breath away almost as literally as Sheena had done to Zelos a few minutes earlier.

Stretching out from the bottom of the cliff was a beautiful green forest. Beyond, the landscape fell even further to a vast, grassy plain that stretched on further than he could see, with a few low-hanging clouds rolling over it. In the distance was the silhouette of an enormous, magnificent castle. The horizon was ringed by mountains, one of which towered above the others, issuing gray clouds into the air above it.

"Wow," he breathed as the others joined him. "This is..."

"Beautiful," Sheena finished.

"Amazing," Colette murmured.

"Extraordinary," Regal offered.

"Aw, hunnies, you're too ki- OW!"

"Shut up, Zelos!"

Genis found he could not disagree. The view was, indeed, exceptional. Still, he and his friends had literally traveled all over the world and had never encountered anything like what he was seeing. There was also the fact that for all the verdant landscape, there was not a trace of mana to be felt.

"Guys," he half-whispered, "I'm not sure we're still in Aselia."

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **With last month's release of _Breath of the Wild_ , I've found yet another contender for the title of Favorite Game Ever. So what do I do? Combine it with another favorite game, of course!**

 **I'm gonna be honest, I haven't thought much out on this one yet; this is about as far as I've gotten. If you, the readers, like it and want some more, be sure to let me know and I'll see what I can do! :)**

 **That's all I got for now! Burd out.**


	2. Chapter 2

_Prologue: The Great Plateau_

Chapter 2

"Not in Aselia?"

"How can that be?"

"Where else would we be?"

"Why would you say that?"

All eyes were on Genis, and he turned to his sister once the initial clamor died down. "You've noticed it, too, right?"

Raine nodded grimly. "You can't sense it either, then."

"Can't sense what?" Lloyd pressed.

"Mana," Genis answered. "I can't sense any mana _anywhere_ \- even inside me." His expression was carefully neutral, but his tone betrayed the uncertainty he felt.

"In which case there are two possible conclusions," the professor added, preemptively silencing the others. "Something might be repressing out ability to sense mana. The only alternative is that there really is no mana here."

The only sounds while the party processed this was the breeze rustling the grass, birds singing, and insects chirping.

For once, Presea gave voice to her thoughts first. "The existence of this verdant landscape in the absence of mana would indicate that some other source of energy fuels life here. Either Aselia was radically changed while we slept..."

"Or Genis is right, and this place isn't Aselia at all," Sheena said grimly.

Zelos scowled in thought. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, time-out. If Professor Hottie and the midget can't sense mana because there _isn't_ any, that includes all of us. We should all be dead in that case. It'd make a lot more sense if their senses were on the fritz."

"This is making my head hurt," Lloyd complained, shaking his head. He turned away from the rest of the group to check out the view again, taking his time to take in all he could see. The view to the left was hidden by a high mountain; to the right, the distant mountains continued on to what looked like two halves of a single peak that had been cleaved down the middle. Then, much closer, past a bend in the cliffs looming over the valley below, he noticed a large, weathered structure, not unlike the Martel temples and cathedrals he was familiar with. "Hey, look at that!" he blurted, pointing at the ruin. He immediately regretted it; he could practically _feel_ Raine switching to Ruin Mode when the others turned to see the building.

Suddenly, Colette grabbed Lloyd's arm with one hand and pointed with the other. "Look!" she exclaimed. "There's someone down there!"

Lloyd lowered his gaze from the dilapidated building to a point in the curving path down the hill they stood on, where there was a small hollow at the base of the hill with a glowing fire. Sure enough, a lone figure could be seen, and even as Lloyd spotted him, he turned and walked back toward the fire.

This person had been watching them.

The others also saw the stranger, and Raine's mind shifted out of Ruin Mode. "There are probably others nearby, then," she reasoned.

"Mm, I don't know if that's comforting or not," Zelos cautioned.

Regal eyed the meager camp the mysterious figure was sitting in. "Whoever it is was expecting us, it would seem."

"If they knew we were in there," Sheena thought aloud, "they might know _why_."

"Even if they don't, maybe they can at least tell us where we are," Genis pointed out.

Lloyd was quiet for a moment longer. On one hand, he knew firsthand that anyone could turn out to be more powerful than they appeared to be at a glance. Approaching this stranger carelessly could prove disastrous. On the other hand, he and the others had questions they could not answer on their own. They were in an unfamiliar wilderness; they could not even hope to get their bearings by themselves. Sooner or later, they would need to reach out for help and hope for the best.

He nodded once. "Then let's go ask him," he suggested, and he began walking down the path.

"We should send two down to begin with," Regal asserted calmly, and Lloyd stopped to listen. "Going alone would be unwise, but we don't want a potential ally to feel threatened by us."

Raine nodded and folded her arms. "That's a good idea. Lloyd, why don't you and Presea go and talk to him?"

Genis suddenly appeared much more concerned than he had a moment ago. "What? Why Presea?!" he exclaimed.

The professor managed to not roll her eyes. "Because," she explained, "she's small and unassuming, yet perfectly capable of fending for herself."

The younger half-elf clammed up, abashed, while Lloyd nodded in agreement. "All right, then let's go, Presea."

"We'll be right behind you," Colette called after them as they started walking away. "If something bad happens, we'll help you!"

The little lumberjack paused while Lloyd trotted on ahead and peered over her shoulder at the others. "Aside from Regal," she pointed out, "we are all without our weapons. If we encounter hostiles, it would be better to flee."

They watched the two continue down the trail in silence, until Regal muttered to himself, "I suppose I _could_ fight with bare feet, but..."

* * *

"How long do you suppose we were inside that cave?" Presea wondered aloud, half-jogging to keep up with Lloyd's longer strides.

The teen slowed down a bit as he answered, silently noting the rotting fence and overgrown paving stones they passed. "I dunno," he said absently. "Probably a while. Waking up didn't really feel the same as it usually does, you know? It felt... slower, heavier. More like waking up after Yggdrasil knocked us out, or that time Zelos drugged us..."

Something was off. Lloyd looked down to find that Presea had slowed to a halt a few paces back. She stared at the ground, eyes hidden by her bangs.

The young man frowned. "Hey, what's wrong, Presea?"

She did not respond for several seconds, and when she did, she sounded small and miserable. "...How much time have I lost now?"

Immediately understanding, Lloyd walked back up to her and put one hand on her shoulder; standing on the lower ground meant they were a little closer to the same height. "Hey, it'll be all right. The important thing is that we're all here," he said softly. "We're gonna get to the bottom of all this, okay? Where we are, how we got here, all of it."

His hand rose and fell with Presea's shoulder as she took a deep breath. When she had released it, she raised her head again and nodded, expression firm. "Very well. Let us go search for answers."

Lloyd gave a reassuring smile, and they continued on toward where the stranger was sitting. On closer inspection, it was, in fact, an old man in dingy brown clothes, face obscured by a hood pulled down to his eyes and an enormous, bushy white beard. He sat holding a staff with a lantern hanging from it beside a little campfire underneath an overhanging ledge.

As they approached, Lloyd caught a sweet, smokey scent coming off the campfire, and he felt his stomach rumble more than he heard it.

"Well met, strangers!" the old man laughed when Lloyd and Presea reached his camp. "It's rather unusual to see other souls in these parts."

Just as Lloyd realized what this meant, a loud gurgling noise filled his ears, startling him and making him jump. As his heart rate returned to normal, he looked down once again at Presea, who was holding her midsection, her face beet red.

If the old man was surprised at the sound, he did not show it; he just chuckled quietly, and Lloyd noticed a glint in his eye. "Why don't you have a baked apple, young one?" he offered, gesturing to a steaming, darkened fruit on the ground beside the fire.

Presea hesitated for only a moment before picking up the apple. "Thank you," she murmured as she ate it, leaving Lloyd to ask the questions.

"Who are you?" the teen asked, more curious than suspicious at this point.

"Me?" the old man answered. "I'll spare you my life story. I'm just an old fool who has lived here, alone, for quite some time now." He glanced away, and Lloyd realized he was looking back at their companions up the trail. "What brings bright-eyed young men and women like you to a place like this?"

 _Wait - he_ doesn't _know why we're here?_

"What is this place?" Presea asked between mouthfuls of apple.

The old man nodded once to her. "Answering a question with a question. That's fair enough." He paused, as if in thought. "As I cannot imagine our meeting to be a simple coincidence... I shall tell you. This is the Great Plateau. According to legend, this is the birthplace of the entire kingdom of Hyrule."

"High Rule?" Lloyd echoed. "What's that?"

He was answered with a chortling noise. "You must be quite lost to not know that." The old man rose to his feet and made a sweeping gesture toward the horizon with his lantern. "Everything you can see from here and more - the wastelands and the Gerudo Desert to the west; the Lost Woods and Death Mountain to the north; and the seas to the east and the south - all of it and everything in between is Hyrule."

"And Hyrule is a kingdom?" Presea queried. "Does that mean civilization is near?"

The old man bowed his head a little. "I'm afraid not," he sighed. "Hyrule has been in a state of ruin for some time now."

There was such deep sadness in the hermit's tone that Lloyd found himself scrambling for something of comfort to say, but the old man turned away before he could think of anything. The teen followed his gaze to the ruined building, now a short distance away across a pond.

"That temple there..." the old man reminisced. "Long ago, it was the site of many sacred ceremonies. Ever since the decline of the kingdom one hundred years ago, it has sat abandoned, in a state of decay." He turned away from the structure to face Lloyd and Presea again, though he stared at the ground as he did so. "Yet another forgotten entity. A mere ghost of its former self..."

"... I'm sorry," Lloyd finally managed. A lame response, he knew, but what could he possibly say?

The hermit waved a hand dismissively. "No apologies necessary." He finally looked up at his two guests again. "I shall be here for some time. Please let me know if I may be of service. Be sure to let your friends up there know: you may help yourselves to anything you find up here."

Lloyd blinked. "Oh, right. Okay." So he stepped out of the shadow of the overhang and waved with one arm to the others, who soon started moving down the hill toward them.

* * *

Once all eight companions had gathered, Lloyd relayed to them everything the old man had revealed so far.

"So, basically, we're out in the wilderness with no food and no weapons." Zelos put a fist on his hip, grimacing. "What are we supposed to do?"

"We'll just have to forage for what we need," Raine answered none too confidently.

"That may be just as well," Regal pointed out. "Without any currency, we couldn't hope to buy anything, anyway."

"I think this will be fun!" Colette chirped, eyes closed with a grin plastered to her face. "We camped out all the time during the World Regeneration. It'll be like old times, without monsters or Desians to worry about!"

Lloyd and Genis' eyes met, and they gave each other a knowing frown. They knew best when Colette's optimism was a front; her uncertainty was no less than that of any of the others. Still, the façade served its purpose.

"Colette's right," Sheena said with a grin. "This won't be too different from before. In fact, I have some Mizuho survival training I can share with all of you."

"Hey, that's great, Sheena!" Lloyd exclaimed, pumping his fist. "We'll definitely be able to-"

"Hey, Presea," Genis called out, "what are you doing?"

The little lumberjack had continued down the path past the old man's camp and was wrenching a large axe from the top of a tree stump.

"That must belong to the man who lives here," Raine observed as Presea dragged the oversized tool back up the hill. "Shouldn't we ask him before we use his tools?"

"Hey, is it okay if we-" Lloyd stopped short when he turned around and found the old man had slipped away. "Hey, where'd he go?" he wondered, glancing up and down the path.

Presea did not stop, or even bother looking at her companions as she passed them. Her eyes were fixed on a stand of apple trees off the path. "He said we may feel free to use whatever we find, and I want another baked apple."

Zelos laughed aloud. "Watch out, guys! Presea's hangry!" Right on cue, his own stomach growled audibly, startling him.

"Sounds like you'll be joining her pretty soon," Sheena teased.

Tethe'alla's Chosen opened his mouth to retort, but someone cut him off.

 _Zelos..._

Zelos tensed up and whirled around, to no avail; there was still no sign of the invisible speaker. "All right," he growled, "what does this creep want with me now?"

"With _you?_ " Raine echoed. "I distinctly heard her call _my_ name."

Before Regal could assert that he had also heard his own name, he heard it again: _Regal. Head for the point marked on your map in your Sheikah Slate._

One by one, they each retrieved their Slates to find this map - Colette first, Zelos last. Eight yellow arrow-shapes marked their location on a blank background; a yellow pinpoint stood some distance away to the northeast.

"Well," Lloyd said, looking up from his Slate, "what do you guys think?"

"Don't get me wrong, now. Normally I'd be all for tracking down a beautiful-sounding babe," Zelos answered with a smirk. "This, though... it doesn't sit right with me."

Sheena rolled her eyes while Colette hung her Slate on her belt to fold her hands together. "She led us out of that cave, didn't she? I... I think we should trust her."

"I agree with Colette," Genis asserted. "Presea," he called in a louder voice, "what do you think we should do?"

There was a crash as the pink-haired girl felled an apple tree. "As I said, right now I just want to eat."

"I think that would be best for all of us," Raine said authoritatively. "Once that's done, we ought to find a place to set up camp."

Regal nodded. "That _would_ be the most prudent course of action." He considered it for a moment more. "The ruined temple would probably provide the best shelter from the elements."

"I'll give you one guess what Lloyd wants to do," Zelos chuckled.

Lloyd shot the Chosen a dirty look before returning his attention to the screen on his Slate. "I think... we should see what that point means."

"We could always split up for a little while," Sheena pointed out. "I can go to the temple with Raine and Regal to help set up camp."

Raine rested her chin on her knuckles. She never did like the idea of splitting up, but it had been necessary - useful, in fact - more than once in the past. "... Very well. We'll go once we're finished eating. Lloyd, Genis, Colette, meet us at the temple once you're done investigating the map."

* * *

"What was that?!" Lloyd asked in a hushed tone.

The foliage beside the path rustled as some grunting _thing_ moved closer. After a snack of baked apples, the party had begun moving on together. At the point where the exploration team was about to leave the temple team, Colette had frozen, listening to a noise she had never heard before. Now, it was near enough for everyone to hear.

"Presea," Raine murmured, but the lumberjack was already stepping forward and drawing her axe; she was the only one with a proper weapon.

Finally, the bushes parted and a bizarre, hideous creature charged toward them. It was roughly human-shaped, but larger, with elongated arms ending in clawed fingers, a flat-fronted snout, big, pointed ears, beady eyes, and a single horn atop its head. Its crimson skin was covered only by arm wraps and a loincloth, and it held a tree branch in one hand.

" _Monster!_ " Genis cried in alarm. The word had hardly left his lips when Presea rushed forward, swinging her axe.

"Beast!" she shouted, spinning in a circle and catching the monster in the face with a backhanded strike. It was thrown back into the bushes by the force of the blow, but to Lloyd's astonishment, the ethereal wolf's head that usually accompanied the blow did not appear.

"Presea, it didn't work!" he exclaimed.

"It will suffice," the girl replied as the monster stood back up. It spit out a large tooth, unleashed a grunting bellow at her, and retrieved his tree branch to try again.

"Deadly Destruction!" Presea yelled, hopping into the air with her axe held over her head. The blade slashed the creature as it came down, but the familiar blast of rock the move usually created was absent. " _Infliction!_ " She followed it up with an upward slice that carried her into the air. However, she went no higher than she would have with a normal jump, and though the attack finally felled the monster with a pig-like squeal, it clearly lacked its usual power.

No sooner had the monster's body skidded to a stop than it darkened and vanished in a puff of dark vapors, leaving behind its horn and a few teeth.

"Well, that was freaky," Sheena remarked, warily picking up one of the creature's fangs.

"I'm pretty sure we've all seen worse," Zelos said with a shrug. "What I wanna know is why Presea's techs didn't do what they're supposed to."

"Yeah, are you feeling all right, Presea?" Genis asked.

The lumberjack flipped her axe around and rested its blade on the ground, a thoughtful expression on her face. "I feel... not as strong as usual, but not unwell."

"I had noticed that, as well," Raine remembered. "We are probably experiencing the effects of atrophy."

"What's that?" Lloyd inquired, deciding not to bother trying to pronounce it.

Regal stepped in to answer: "During extended periods of inactivity, the body begins to break down. If you look closely, our frames are not as well-built as they were before."

Sheena scratched her head. "Now that you mention it, you don't look as beefy as you did before, Regal. That shouldn't mean we can't use techs at all, though, should it?"

"There's still too much we don't know," the professor concluded. She gestured to the horn and teeth still sitting in the grass. "In any case, we need to be cautious of things like that."

"It wasn't all that strong, was it?" Colette asked.

"No," Raine said, shaking her head, "not particularly, but there are probably more around here. We should stay together and-"

Lloyd saw where this was going. "We'll be okay, Professor, really!" He took the discarded branch, swinging it experimentally. "The point on the map is pretty close by. We'll check it out, take down any pig-men in our way, and come right back."

"I will go with them if it will put your mind at ease," Presea offered before Raine could refuse the idea.

The half-elf turned to her brother, her expression unreadable to all but him.

Genis pondered his response for a bit before giving it. "We need answers, Raine, and that voice is the only one who seems to have any."

Raine sighed through her nostrils. "... Meet us at the temple in half an hour."

With this permission and deadline, Lloyd, Colette, Genis, and Presea took off down the gentle slope toward toward plain dotted with rock formations and toppled ruins, while Raine, Zelos, Sheena, and Regal turned aside to make for the temple. The teens encountered two more pig-men as they followed their map, these two wielding bows and arrows. Lloyd quickly found that they did not know how to lead their shots, so he and Presea approached in a zig-zag pattern until they were close enough to dispatch them.

"Genis, Colette, why don't you take these?" Lloyd suggested after examining the crude wooden bows. "You don't have any weapons yet."

"Neither do you, Lloyd - sticks don't count," Genis answered, rolling his eyes. He accepted a bow regardless and scavenged a few arrows left behind.

Colette, as could be expected, was more enthusiastic, her eyes lighting up as she tried bending her bow. "I've always wanted to try one of these out," she confessed. "Ever since we first started seeing archers at Ossa Trail. Thank you, Lloyd!" Lloyd could only grin and hope he was not blushing visibly.

"Everyone, look out!"

Presea's warning was not a moment too early. Lloyd turned just in time to see two more monsters approaching. One held a heavy-looking wooden club, the other a wooden shield and a metal short sword.

The brunette teen cursed as he took on his battle stance. "Colette, Genis, you two should keep going," he decided. "We'll meet you at the point on the map!"

Colette blanched. "What? No! I can't just leave you two to fight! I have a bow now, I can-"

Genis slung his bow over his back, grabbed the young Chosen's hand, and started running, towing her along behind him. "You don't know how to use that thing yet! Let's go, they can handle it!"

As clashes rang out behind them, Colette and Genis continued on toward the mystery location. When their markers were nearly overlapping with the pinpoint, they found themselves standing at the base of a rock formation.

"It reminds me of Hima," Colette reminisced, brushing the stony surface with her palm.

Genis walked around it, looking up and down at it with his forehead wrinkled. "But what are we supposed to do here?" he wondered, agitated. "We're running out of time until we need to head back, and who knows how Lloyd and Presea are- huh?"

He had stumbled upon a crevice in the side of the rock, wide enough for a grown man to walk inside; an orange light glowed from within. He hesitated, looking at his map again. The device was telling him to proceed inside, but everything inside him was vehemently opposed to the idea. Before he could decide whether to go in or walk away, Colette found what had given him pause and ventured inside herself.

She had not yet left his sight before she, too stopped. "Hey, come look at this!" she exclaimed.

Genis sighed, resigned, and went in after her. She was standing before the source of the orange glow: a pedestal, just like the one he had found his Sheikah Slate in back in the cave. This one, however, was empty.

The wheels in the half-elf's head turned, and he reluctantly stepped forward with his Slate in hand and placed it in the empty slot on the pedestal. The device took hold of the Slate and flipped it into place. Glowing blue text appeared on the screen below the eye-shaped design:

Sheikah Tower activated.

Please watch for falling rocks.

 _Huh?_ Before Genis could give voice to his confusion, the ground beneath his feet began to tremble violently, knocking him and Colette off their feet and sending little cascades of dust and pebbles down on them.

" _Oh, no!_ " Colette cried, a rare note of terror in her voice.

 _What have we done?_ Genis wondered, squeezing his eyes shut.

There was an ear-splitting cracking sound...

And Genis suddenly felt heavier, as if he was being pressed into the ground. At first, he imagined he was dead and being forced into his grave, but the mild nausea he felt made him realize he had felt this sensation before. The Desians, Renegades, and Cruxis had all made use of rising and falling platforms called "elevators," and being on one of these as it went upward felt exactly this way.

"... _We're going up!_ "


	3. Chapter 3

_Prologue: The Great Plateau_

Chapter 3

"You're injured!" Presea cried.

Lloyd took his hand away from the small cut on his shoulder; there was _some_ blood on it, but he had certainly been hurt worse before. "A little, yeah," he admitted with a shrug. "But I'll be fine. I'll ask the Professor to look at it when we get back."

"That would be prudent," Presea agreed with a nod. "Are you not going to take that shield as well?"

"Nah." Lloyd swung the blade he had taken from the monster he had defeated. "All I need now is another sword."

"But until you get one, would it not be better to have a shield in the event that you need to fight again?"

Lloyd looked with disdain at the mass of wood and tree bark that passed for a shield for the monsters. It did not appear useful in the slightest, but Presea did have a point. "Maybe, but I don't really know how to use one."

"Then I will bring it for Zelos." Apparently having nothing more to say about it, Presea picked up the shield and strapped it to her back. "We should find Colette and Genis now. I believe they went-"

Before she could finish, the ground started to tremble - gently at first, but growing more and more violent and nearly knocking both of them off-balance.

"Whoa! What's happening?!" Lloyd shouted.

"Earthquake!" Presea yelled.

In times of crisis, Presea occasionally reverted to her old emotionless, analytical, calculating self. She hated that her time under her Exsphere's thrall still affected her, but it proved useful in times like this. In a moment, she had determined that with no trees, cliffs, or buildings over them, they were in little danger.

Still, she was nervous when she returned to normal. Just as she did, however, a deafening crack of thunder split the air: the sound of stone being ripped apart.

Presea whirled around just in time to see the shards of a rock formation falling around a platform rising from the ground, even as the tremor became a barely discernible shaking. As the massive pillar beneath the platform pushed it up into the sky, she glimpsed a flash of platinum blonde on top of it.

"Genis and Colette are there!" she gasped. No sooner had the words left her mouth than Lloyd sprinted past her toward the pillar, leaving her gaping in the dust.

By the time he was about halfway there, his heart was pounding and his breath was coming in gulps; still, he pushed himself. Between the Tower of Mana and the group's numerous visits to the Tower of Salvation, he had plenty of reason not to trust towers. Now one was threatening to take his two best friends away. How high would it take them? Up to the clouds? The stars? The moon itself? He could only guess.

When he had almost reached the base of the still-rising tower, he noticed its central pillar had a series of smaller platforms wound around it. His only hesitation was to swear to himself; once he got to the tower, he jumped and caught one of these little platforms as it came out of the ground, and up he went.

Lloyd hauled himself up onto the platform and flopped over on his back, panting hard. "Why - was that - so hard?" he gasped. He lifted his arm to look at the back of his hand; there were his Key Crest and Exsphere. He was sure he would have noticed if they had been missing, but he had needed to make sure.

"Maybe that... _antropy_ thing the Professor mentioned is worse than I thought," he guessed. Gingerly, he pried the stone from its housing.

No change. He still felt weak, but not more so than with his Exsphere equipped.

 _So it just doesn't work anymore... What's going on here?!_

* * *

Zelos had had just about enough of this place. His recent memories were gone, he was in a strange, isolated place, the very clothes off his back were missing, and some invisible chick kept talking to him in his mind.

Now a freaking _statue_ was doing it, too.

"Oh, no. No, no no no, _no._ I'm _not_ doing this right now," he griped, spinning on his heel to walk away from the stone figure and toward the camp the others had set up closer to the temple's front entrance.

It was at that moment that the shaking started.

"Whoa!" Zelos lost his balance, but managed to catch himself on his hands and knees. "What the..."

He was cut short by the rattling of small pebbles hitting the ground around him, and he froze.

"Aw, crap."

" _Zelos! Get out of there!_ "

The shout snapped him back into action, and he hastily got back to his feet and ran as quickly as he could without falling down again. Rocks, dust, and even a roofing tile crashed to the floor as he went; he pushed himself faster. Raine, Regal, and Sheena were already outside, peering through the doorway from a safe distance.

He had not heard Sheena sound so panicked in a long time.

"Safe!" he called as he bolted outside, sliding to a stop and nearly running into his companions. Poetically, the earthquake stopped at that moment.

He was the only one amused by his little joke. Raine and Regal just let out pent-up sighs of relief as he stood back up and dusted himself off.

"Are you all right?!" Sheena demanded worriedly, reaching her hand out as if to grab his arm, but stopping herself short.

Zelos picked up on the gesture and smirked at her. "Well, well! I didn't know the demonic banshee cared so much!"

One of her eyes twitched.

Her open hand curled into a fist.

 _Uh-oh._

Sheena slugged him in the jaw and sent him to the ground before stalking away, grumbling.

Regal just shook his head. _If he's going to antagonize her,_ he thought to himself, _he might have been better off staying inside._ He had not yet decided on whether to say this out loud when something in the distance caught his attention.

"What _is_ that?" he wondered, alerting the others to the emerging tower in the distance.

"That must be what caused the quake," Raine realized, drawing up alongside him with Sheena close behind. Zelos popped up from the ground to see for himself.

"Isn't that around where Lloyd and the others were going?" Sheena asked.

Regal took his Sheikah Slate from his belt and activated the screen. He looked from the screen to the tower and back a few times. "It would appear so. The highlighted point from before is gone, and Colette and Genis are at that spot now."

Raine's attention snapped to him, her eyes widened. "What?! How can you tell?"

"I assigned numbers to each of our markers on my map," he answered, lowering his Slate to show them, "so I can tell who is where." He pointed at the various groups of markers on the screen, while Zelos started fidgeting and turning his body while watching. "The four of us are here at the temple, Genis and Colette are there, and Lloyd..." He paused to watch the marker labeled "1" speeding away from number 7 and toward 2 and 3. "...Lloyd is heading right for that tower."

"Hey, how come I'm only number 6?" Zelos whined. At that moment, Raine dashed away from the group toward the tower. "Whoa, hey! Babe! Where're you going?"

"To find my brother!" Raine yelled without looking back.

Regal and Sheena shared a brief glance and ran off after her, leaving Zelos.

"...Yeah, great," he grumbled. "Let's go _toward_ the weird building that wasn't there a second ago." With that, he started jogging after them to the still-rising tower.

* * *

After what felt like several minutes, the tower's rumbling ceased as its ascent came to a halt.

Warily, Genis uncurled from the little ball he had rolled into and peered around him.

The platform turned out to be about fifteen meters across, with the pedestal standing in the center. Six ornate pillars ringed it and held up the structure's spire. From that spire, a stalactite hung over the pedestal. Gaping holes in the floor stretched between each pair of pillars.

At the edge of the platform, staring out, was Colette.

"Are you all right, Colette?" Genis asked, shakily climbing to his feet.

She turned and flashed a quick smile at him. "Yeah, I'm fine. We're really high up now, though."

Genis gulped and walked over to her to see for himself, and he poked his head over the edge.

He immediately scrambled backward and grabbed onto one of the spire's pillars, to Colette's confusion.

"What's wrong, Genis?"

"We're _really_ high up," he breathed.

Colette glanced down to the ground below again, trying to judge the distance. "It doesn't look _that_ bad..."

"That's easy to say when you can fly!"

Colette turned to face him and was about to argue the point when the stalactite lit up with a series of blue runes. "Hey, look at that!" she said, pointing.

Genis was just in time to see the runes start moving down the rock's length toward its point. They seemed to converge there, condensing into a bright light... And then it fell like a drop of water onto his Sheikah Slate, still lodged in the pedestal. It "splashed" on the surface, and its light dispersed.

"Huh?" He let go of his pillar and went to take a look at it, Colette following close behind. As they watched, the screen brought up its blank map, and a chunk in the middle glowed brightly and was filled in with a more detailed landscape.

"Wow," Genis breathed, and the pedestal ejected his Slate. He returned it to his belt and looked up curiously at the now featureless stalactite. "If Raine had seen that," he decided, "she'd stay up here for weeks trying to study it."

"I think that thing gave you a better map," Colette observed, and she quickly took out her own Slate. "I wonder if it'll do that to mine now?"

Genis stiffened. Putting his Slate in the slot had made the tower rise; what would placing an additional Slate do? "Wait, Colette, don't-"

He was too late. She dropped one end of the tablet onto the pedestal's receptacle...

Birds chirped and the breeze blew. The pedestal did not move.

The half-elf released his breath when Colette picked up her slate again and activated the screen. "I guess not- oh! I have it now, too!" She flipped it around to show him the screen; her map now showed the same landscape his did.

"Colette! Genis! Are you up there?"

Both teens startled and went to look down one of the holes in the floor. About five meters below, Lloyd waved up at them.

"Lloyd!" Colette called down, obviously relieved.

"How'd you get up here?" Genis asked.

Lloyd tapped the floor he was standing on with his foot. "These platforms go all the way up and down this tower," he explained, "and the walls are kind of like a ladder. You could just fly down, Colette, but Genis will need to come down this way."

Again, Colette was spared having to say anything about it.

 _Remember..._ The voice murmured to her, faintly at first, but gathering strength. _Try... Try to remember..._

* * *

Raine slowed to a stop near the bottom of the tower as the voice rang in her mind, her worry for Genis momentarily set aside.

"That voice again..." She scanned the area to see of she could find its source as Regal, Sheena, and Zelos caught up with her.

"There! Look!"

The professor followed Sheena's pointing finger to the castle on the horizon. At first, she thought the light shining in her eyes was the sunset's reflection off a window or the like, but the golden glow did not fade with the daylight.

"Is _that_ where she is?" Raine asked.

Zelos scoffed. "How should we-"

 _You have been asleep for the past 100 years._

Raine recoiled, but did not have time to process this announcement before the ground started to shake yet again. In the distance, something began to enshroud the castle - something like a gray and sickly red cloud, snaking and swirling its way around the walls and battlements.

 _The beast... When the beast regains its true power, this world will face its end._

Before her very eyes, the leading end of the cloud took shape; a head emerged, larger than the castle's most prominent tower, with a long snout, curved tusks, an impossibly wide maw, and a pair of yellow orbs for eyes. Just the sight of it made Raine wish she were somewhere else - somewhere far away from this monstrosity, where it could be a distant, nightmarish memory. Then the thing's jaw's parted and released the most unearthly, frightening roar she had ever heard.

Having met more than her fair share of monsters, that was saying something.

The abomination looming over the castle roared again; as if rising to challenge it, the golden light intensified, so much that Raine had to shield her eyes with her hand for a moment. When she looked again, the beast was lost from view, but the shroud surrounding the castle remained.

 _Now, then... You must hurry, Raine. Before it's too late..._

She stood rooted in place for a full minute, trying to make some sense of everything that had just happened.

 _That thing... What was that? Why does this person think WE can do something about it? One hundred years?! That can't be! If I was asleep for 100 years... were all of the others, too?_

"Raine!"

Her brother's voice yanked her out of her own thoughts and back into the world. She followed it upwards, and there, perched on one of the small platforms on the side of the tower, was Genis, along with Lloyd and Colette.

She put a hand on her heart and sighed. If nothing else made any sense, at least he was safe. "Genis, thank goodness!" she called up to him.

"We're fine, everyone!" Colette reassured everyone on the ground. "We found another pedestal like the ones back in the cave. Putting a Slate in it made this tower appear and gave us all a map."

Regal, recovering from his shock, checked his own Slate. "So it did..."

"Can you guys get down?" Sheena asked.

Lloyd gave a thumbs up. "Yeah, no problem! Just give us a minute."

With that, he jumped down to the next highest platform a short distance below. He continued hopping down this way while Genis and Colette opted to use the ladder-like bars composing the pillar's sides to climb down, taking a few brief rests on the way. As Lloyd had said, it took about a minute for them all to be safely at ground level again.

The moment Genis' feet hit the dirt, a low, raspy voice echoed around them.

Lloyd looked up and saw the most ridiculous thing he had yet seen in this strange place.

The old man he had met shortly after awakening was flying down toward them out of the darkening sky, holding onto a wooden frame with some kind of fabric or hide stretched over the top.

Zelos threw up his hands when he saw him. "Okay, what the f-OOF!"

"Watch your mouth," Sheena hissed, leaving the Chosen to nurse his bruised ribs.

Once the old man landed, he unhooked his lantern from his flying contraption, folded the thing up, and hung it on his back. "My, my," he mused. "It seems we have quite the enigma here." He gestured to the massive column the three teens had just descended. "This tower and others just like it have erupted across the land, one after another. It is almost as though... a long-dormant power has awoken quite suddenly."

Regal looked up at the tower again, noting now that its interior beneath its outer surface was glowing in ornate blue patterns. "Is it of some significance?" he asked the old man.

The hermit chuckled. "I imagine it meant something to someone at some time. Why else would they have built it?"

The collective party regarded him quietly and suspiciously. He looked at each of them in turn, his expression hidden partly by his hood, and partly by his beard. Finally, his gaze settled on Colette and Genis. "You two were atop it when it arose, were you not?"

Genis nodded slowly; the fact that he could not sense any mana signature from this stranger agitated him.

Their host nodded in turn. "If you do not mind me asking," he ventured, "did anything... odd occur while you were up there?"

"We heard a voice," Colette spilled. "It's been talking to us ever since we woke up. There was a light at the castle, and then that... _thing_ appeared." She shivered and moved closer to Lloyd.

"We heard it and saw it, too," Sheena volunteered cautiously. "Do you know what it is?"

"All too well," the man said gravely, turning to face the atrocity in question. "That... is Calamity Ganon. One hundred years ago, that vile entity brought the kingdom of Hyrule to ruin."

 _The entire kingdom?_ Lloyd forced himself to look at the castle again; even without the boar head present, the castle and the foggy stuff surrounding it were menacing enough to make him wish both would simply vanish.

"It appeared suddenly," the old man continued, "and destroyed everything in its path. So many innocent lives were lost in its wake. For a century, the very symbol of our kingdom, Hyrule Castle, has managed to contain that evil. But just barely. There it festers, building its strength for the moment it will unleash its blight on the land once again." His voice dropped to a low murmur. "It would appear that moment is fast approaching..."

No one spoke for a beat, until Zelos broke the silence. "Okay, but what's the harm in that if the kingdom's already been destroyed and its people are gone?"

Lloyd opened his mouth to argue, but the more he thought about it, the more sense the question made. He and everyone else looked to the old man for his answer.

"Did I ever say Hyrule had been destroyed?" he asked, and edge of impatience in his voice. "I said it was brought to _ruin_. The calamity was stopped before its destruction was complete, and a good many of its people still live, scattered to the furthest corners of the kingdom." He pointed to the castle again, more aggressively. "If that monster has its way, all will be lost - your lives included."

"Why are you telling us this?" Sheena suddenly demanded. "What are _we_ supposed to do to stop _that?_ " She looked hopelessly at the castle as she spoke.

The man's eye glinted, and Zelos and Genis both realized that was probably just what he had been waiting to hear, to their dismay.

"I'm afraid there isn't much that _can_ be done," he admitted. "... Not from here on the plateau, anyway."

All eyes were firmly on him again.

"We are surrounded on all sides by steep cliffs," he elaborated, "with no way down. If you were to try to jump off or climb down, well... no death could be more certain. Or more foolish. Of course..." He pointed to his back with one thumb. "If you had a paraglider like mine, that would be quite another story."

"You mean you'd let us have it?" Lloyd asked eagerly.

"Certainly!" the old man laughed. "But you can't get something for nothing, you know."

Lloyd's heart sank.

"Let's see..." The man stared off into space, thinking. "How about I trade it for a bit of treasure that slumbers nearby? Come. Let me show you something."

He began walking away, and the younger ones started to follow him.

"No."

Everyone froze - except Colette, who tripped and fell.

"Professor, why not?" Lloyd asked, helping the girl up.

Raine folded her arms, defiantly looking the old man in the eye. "We're not going anywhere with you tonight. It's getting late, and there's too much information being thrown at us in such a short time. We all need a chance to think about it and talk it over..." She looked around the group and quickly realized something was amiss. "... And where on Earth is Presea?!"

The seven Aselians jumped, shocked. How had their companion's absence gone unnoticed for so long?

Regal was the first to recover, and he took out his Slate and opened its map. "This way!" he shouted, running away from the tower and into the night, the others hot on his heels.

Without the map showing them where her Slate was, they might have easily missed her, kneeling silently on the ground on the barren plain under the starry sky.

"Presea!" Genis cried, dropping down to his knees in front of her. "Thank goodness! What are you doing here? ...Presea?"

Lloyd squatted down beside him. "I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have run off like that and... Huh?"

The rest of them quickly gathered around, and it was quickly apparent that something was very, very wrong.

Presea was staring off in the direction of the castle with wide eyes and mouth agape, unmoving. Star and moon light reflected off trickles of tears down her cheeks, like water leaking out of a dam.

"Presea, what's wrong?" Regal asked urgently, taking a knee beside her.

"One hundred years," she whispered.

Comprehension hit them like a brick wall.

Raine's motherly instinct, built from years of raising her brother, kicked in, and she fell to her knees behind Presea and embraced her gently.

"Who did this?" Presea closed her eyes. She clenched her teeth, her whole body shuddered, and the dam burst. Her tears flowed freely, and she threw her head back as a flood of despair, outrage, and anguish washed over her. Her scream pierced the night air, as well as her friends' hearts.

" ** _WHO DID THIS?!_** "


	4. Chapter 4

_Prologue: The Great Plateau_

 _Chapter 4_

The dilapidated Temple of Time glowed from within with the light of the Aselians' campfire.

Colette stared glumly out a broken window, the landscape outside illuminated by the celestial bodies above, while a debate went on behind her.

"I think we all want to get home," Lloyd stated, "but if what that guy said is true-"

"We have little reason to trust him," Raine interjected. "He is far too guarded about himself to be a simple hermit. Kratos was the same way at the start of our journey - don't you remember?"

"But Kratos turned out to be on our side in the end, didn't he?" Sheena pointed out.

"He still betrayed us and almost got us all killed," Genis said sourly. "And it doesn't change that this guy definitely knows more than he's saying."

"We could give him the benefit of the doubt for now," Regal suggested. "As of yet, he hasn't brought us to harm-"

Zelos snorted. "He didn't think to warn us that there were monsters out and about, and then he tried to steer us into a suicide mission to take down some mystical embodiment of evil. Sure, no one's actually gotten hurt because of it, but it seems pretty suspicious to me. For all we know, he could be the one who brought us here and locked us in that cave in the first place."

"Okay, fine. That _might_ be what's happening," Lloyd said, exasperated. "But what if you're wrong, and he's telling the truth?"

"And what if he's lying to us?" Genis countered. "For that matter, what if that girl is lying, too? We can't just..."

Colette sighed to herself. Having given her opinion early on, there was little to nothing she could add to the debate that had not already been said. She knew a good person when she saw one. She had been right about Sheena; she had been right about Regal; she had been right about Zelos; it had taken a long time, but she had even been right about Kratos in the end. She believed everything the old man had told them so far, even if he had not told them everything. That said, if the people of this world truly were in danger, they could not turn a blind eye.

Unfortunately, her instinct had not been enough to convince the more skeptical members of the party.

The topic of discussion itself was not even what troubled her most. Being in a group of their size, with people so vastly _different_ from each other, disagreements were bound to come up sometimes. That was okay. One of the things she hated most, however, was when the group was split on how to move forward. Usually, when conflicting ideas arose between them, they were able to either talk out the problem and come to a solution, or simply agree that the subject was not worth arguing over. They had never had a split like this, when even after hours of arguing and reasoning they could not decide on a course of action. It did not bode well.

Wanting to distract herself from her thoughts, Colette spared Presea a glance, huddled despondently at Regal's side. The poor girl had been sobbing hysterically, unable to speak coherently, or even walk, for several minutes after they had found her, and Regal had taken it upon himself to carry her back here. Now, it seemed she was too exhausted and depressed to even pay attention to the discussion; she just stared blankly into the fire, her eyes puffy and red and her cheeks stained with tears. Seeing her friend so openly distressed was both jarring and heartbreaking for Colette.

Turning back to the window, she tuned out the conversation the others were having and buried herself in her own thoughts for a while.

Gradually, however, she noticed it was getting considerably quieter. Most of the others had stopped talking, and the few who still spoke did so in hushed whispers. No one else would have understood what was being said; she could hear that it was Regal and Raine discussing the night watch.

With a sigh, Colette left the window and sat down in the circle beside Sheena, who was already sound asleep. Raine joined her shortly.

"Are you all right, Colette?" her teacher whispered.

"I'm fine, Professor," she answered softly.

"Are you sure?"

She paused to think before answering again. She had awakened in a cave, without her clothes and recent memories, in a world not her own. She had encountered strange monsters, been scooped into the sky, discovered she could no longer fly, been informed she had slept for one hundred years, and been confronted with a task that made her last journey seem clear and straightforward by comparison. The family and friends she had had outside this group of eight were surely gone by now, including her parents and her grandmother, a thought she was not sure she could accept at this moment. She could not recall if she had gotten to say goodbye to them or not...

...Yet for all that, she was still alive, surrounded by the seven people she was closest to, the ones she had fought alongside, laughed with, cried with, and saved their world with. They had overcome the impossible together before. If they were still with her, how bad could this possibly be?

"...I'm sure," she said, nodding firmly.

Raine said nothing, but Colette saw her nod in the corner of her eye, and then she lied down on the floor. Colette turned to her and saw that the half-elf had closed her eyes to get some sleep.

"What are we going to do?" she asked.

"I don't know," Raine said sadly, cracking her eyelids open. "We still don't know enough about what we're dealing with here. In any case, we can't do anything more tonight except rest." She closed her eyes again. "Please, try and get some sleep, Colette."

With that, the Professor drifted off to sleep.

Colette tried to follow her example, lying down and shutting her eyes. However, her thoughts made her restless.

How could there be any more question of what they should do? If they chose to trust the old man, they would collect the treasure he had spoken of, exchange it for his paraglider, and leave the plateau to search for answers. If not, they could at least take a look around the plateau and see if it was true that there was no way down, and then decide what to do next. It seemed so simple to her; why did the others have to make it so complicated?

A rustling noise filled her sensitive ears. She tried to ignore it at first; it was probably one of her friends rolling over in their sleep. The sound persisted, however, and ultimately gave way to the padding of bare feet walking across stone.

Colette sat up and glanced around. Regal was sitting in the doorway; he looked like he had been there for some time. It had not been him.

Scanning the rest of the temple, she saw Lloyd creeping away from the camp toward a large hole in the wall leading outside.

 _What...?_ Taking care not to disturb Raine or Sheena, she pushed herself up to her feet, grabbed her bow, and tiptoed after him.

"Lloyd!" Colette hissed once she was outside. Though it was dark out, she had no trouble spotting him in the gloom, making his way toward the back of the temple. At her call, he stopped and turned to face her; after a brief hesitation, he started walking back to her. She walked out to meet him, hugging herself as she did; with her thin garments and bare feet, the brisk night air and the cold stone chilled her.

Lloyd drew close, expression serious; she did not have to ask any questions. "I'm going to find that old man," he whispered. "I'll get his dumb treasure, and I'll get his para-thingy so we can get down from this place."

"Lloyd, what if it's dangerous?" she asked pleadingly, glancing at his shoulder. The bandage Raine had made for him poked out from under his collar.

"We can't just sit around up here waiting for something to happen!" Lloyd exclaimed as quietly as he could. "Besides, if the people of this world really are in danger from that Calamity what's-it-called..." He clenched a fist. "...I can't just ignore it!"

Colette nodded somberly; her friend really could be dense sometimes. "I know. We need to do something. But what I mean is... it's too dangerous for you to go by yourself. So..." She drew herself up and looked him squarely in the eye. "So I'm coming with you."

Lloyd's eyes widened, and he looked like he was about to object, but his gaze softened and he smiled at her warmly. Almost literally - the sight seemed to stave off the cold. "All right," he agreed. "Let's go - you and me."

She returned his smile, sending his heart fluttering, and walked close beside him as they made their way behind the temple to avoid Regal's vigil.

Just on the other side of the broken wall, Sheena, now wide awake, relaxed and breathed more easily, grinning to herself. Even if she was weaker than before, her Mizuho training had not failed her, and she had escaped Colette's detection. "Well," she whispered to herself, "someone's gotta keep an eye on those two."

* * *

 **Character Profile: Lloyd Irving**

 **As he was back in Aselia, Lloyd is of average strength and speed when compared to the rest of the group. He can use his crafting skills to perform maintenance on most weapons so that they last longer before breaking, and he can make basic arrows with the right materials. In battle, his skill with dual swords allows him to attack faster than most of his companions, but since he does not know how / refuses to use a shield, he is unable to passively block enemy attacks, and parrying is more difficult.**

* * *

With a swing of his sword, Lloyd struck down the last of the bat-monsters that had confronted him and Colette. It fell with a screech and, upon hitting the ground, vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving its wings and its single orange eyeball behind.

"Ew..." He slipped his sword into the sheath he had scavenged. "Come on, we're almost there," he reassured Colette. They continued on up the hill they had walked down earlier that day, toward the old man's campfire. He was there once again, stirring the contents of a cooking pot with a ladle.

He glanced over to them when he heard them coming. "Oh. Good evening," he said to them. "Is your friend well?"

"Presea?" Lloyd shrugged helplessly. "She's safe, at least. Finding out we were out for a hundred years hit us all pretty hard, I think. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. But she..." He shook his head, momentarily lost for words. "Something like this has happened to her before."

"Oh..." The hermit returned his gaze to the fire and stirred a pot suspended over it. "I understand. I'm sorry to have asked anything of you while you were recovering from your shock."

"Actually," Colette told him, hoping to lighten the mood, "that's why we're here. We came to get that treasure for you."

He looked back to them curiously, one eyebrow raised. "At this hour? Do your friends know you're doing this?"

Lloyd shook his head. "No. Some of them don't trust you."

The man's gaze drifted past them. "No, I imagine not."

"But we do!" Colette said firmly. "So... where is this treasure?"

He looked them over for a few seconds before setting aside his ladle and standing up, lantern in hand. "If you are sure, then come with me." With that, he started down the path, in the general direction of the tower. The two teens followed close behind, trying to stay within the light his lantern gave off.

Lloyd kept his hand on the hilt of his sword as they went, and his head constantly turned side to side as he watched for more monsters. The old man assured him, however, that only Keese, the frail bat-monsters, would be active at this time of night. The Bokoblins, the pig-men they had encountered that day, would all be sound asleep in their camps, he claimed.

"Bokoblins," Colette repeated once she had heard the term. "What... are they, exactly?"

"They are demons," the man said gravely, "the basest of the Calamity's servants. They are also among the least intelligent, but deceptively strong and equally hostile."

Lloyd gazed out toward the shrouded castle in the distance. "They work for that thing? Why?"

"They exist to serve its will," said the man. "They and all the other races it spawned."

Colette moved closer to Lloyd. "What others?" she asked.

The man turned enough to give her a small, soft smile. "There is no need to fear them. Only Bokoblins remain here on the plateau."

Lloyd decided it was time to move away from the topic of monsters. "How long have you lived up here, anyway?"

"The answer to that is more complex than you realize," the man chuckled, to Lloyd's confusion. "I will say this: I have been here for far longer than I would ever like to admit." He stopped walking just as they were about to reach the plain the tower now stood in. "Ah, here we are."

The sight of the shrine, glowing orange beside a deep pond near the battlements marking the edge of the plateau, was enough for Lloyd to ignore the dodged question. It had a passing resemblance to an upside-down vase, and it appeared small enough to fit inside the temple the group was camped in.

"That structure began glowing at the exact moment those towers rose up from the ground," the man explained. "There are three others here on the plateau. I would think such a place might house some sort of treasure, wouldn't you?" he asked Lloyd.

Lloyd shrugged. "I... guess so?"

"So if we bring you whatever treasure is in these things," Colette clarified, "you'll give us your... what did you call it?"

"Paraglider," the man answered. "A fair exchange, I believe."

"Okay, let's go take a look," said Lloyd. He started down the hill again with Colette in tow, until he realized the man was not following. "Hey, aren't you coming?"

He shook his head. "I'm afraid I cannot enter the shrine. Not to worry; I will meet you when you have the treasure." He turned around and started walking back up the hill. "For now, I need to tend to my dinner before it burns."

Lloyd bristled. "You're making us go alone?! We don't know what's in there!"

"What makes you think I know?" the man asked over his shoulder. "And who said anything about going alone? You have each other, do you not?" With that, he left them, his lantern swaying on his cane as he walked.

Lloyd crossed his arms, irked at this development. "... If he wants the treasure so much," he grumbled, "you'd think he'd want to come with us."

"We could go back and get some help," Colette suggested. "I'm sure Sheena wouldn't mind coming, and Regal would probably agree, too."

He mulled it over for a bit and shook his head. "Nah. They might have realized we're gone by now. If we go back, Professor Sage probably won't let us come back here." He returned his attention to the shrine; it stood out like a sore thumb with its odd design and glowing lights. "It looks harmless enough," he decided. "Let's just be careful."

Colette smiled at him. "Okay! I'll look out for you, Lloyd."

"And I'll look out for you," Lloyd promised. The two childhood friends shared a quick hug before making their way down to the shrine.

* * *

Sheena's throat and chest seemed to tighten when she saw Lloyd and Colette's embrace from the cover of the nearby fores, and she looked away and sighed to herself as they walked away.

It was all too familiar. She had become aware of the bond between the two soon after joining their group as an ally. She had watched it grow, strengthen, and ultimately evolve during their travels... even as she had felt herself being drawn to Lloyd. She had not been all that subtle about it, as Zelos was all too happy to remind her, but the idiot... _boy_ had never caught on to her feelings for him. Then came the final nail in the coffin; after their worlds had been reunited, Lloyd and Colette had revealed their plans to journey together again, just the two of them. Sheena truly did not know if she would have chosen to go with them or to return to Mizuho, where she was needed, but to not even be asked still made her ache.

She shook her head and steeled herself. _Enough of that,_ she thought. _I'm here on a mission._ She looked back up and saw that Lloyd and Colette had reached the building; Lloyd was walking around its base, probably examining it for traps, while Colette had gone straight for the pedestal beside it on its dais.

Footsteps.

Sheena tensed up, listening, cursing herself for not thinking to find a weapon. It was not the sound of a pig-man approaching; their footfalls were quicker and heavier. It sounded more like...

She groaned under her breath.

"Hey, sweetums!"

"Go away."

Zelos ignored her, striding up from behind her and dropping down in the bushes, observing the scene, while Sheena gave him an annoyed glare. "Well, what could _those_ two be up to?" he wondered aloud, grinning mischievously.

Sheena rolled her eyes, but kept her cool. "That old guy brought them here," she whispered, watching him out of the corner of her eye so she could see him recoil. Debunking Zelos' perverted fantasies tended to do more to shut him up than physical violence did.

"Are you telling me Lloyd-"

"He was gonna come alone," Sheena interrupted, "but Colette caught him sneaking out." She kept her attention focused on the two teens, trying to ignore whatever Zelos would say next.

"So who was it you noticed leaving?"

The question caught her by surprise. "Huh?" She turned to look at him, and his sly grin was back.

"Was it Lloyd or Colette?"

Sheena tilted her head at him, curious. "Why do you ask?"

Zelos' smile broadened. "Oh, no reason." He looked back over to Lloyd and Colette again, still smirking.

Sheena narrowed her eyes at him. "Speaking of which, why are you out here?"

"I woke up and needed to take a leak," he said bluntly. "Then I noticed you three were missing, and..." He shrugged. "Well, you can understand why I'd want to find you guys."

No mercy this time. Sheena slapped Zelos hard enough to send him sprawling to the ground.

"OWW!" he whined, holding a hand to his face.

"You're unbelievable!" Sheena hissed, turning away to watch Lloyd and Colette again. To her surprise, some of the orange lights on the building had turned blue, and one side of the structure had opened up. She could not see inside it, and the two teens were nowhere to be seen. "Hey, where'd they go?" she wondered.

Zelos popped back up to look. "Huh. They must've gone inside." He picked up his Slate and turned on the screen. "...Okay, that wasn't there before."

"What wasn't?" she asked, peering over his shoulder at the screen.

"That," he answered, pointing at a blue, diamond-shaped marker on the plateau map.

Sheena scoffed. "That thing was definitely there before."

Zelos gave her an annoyed look. "No, it wasn't." He pointed at another such marker, closer to the middle of the map. " _That_ one's been there all along..." He moved his finger to a different one due east of their position. "... and _that_ one popped up after the tower did. _This_ one-" he touched the screen with his finger this time, and the map view shifted to center on the newest blue marker. A text box appeared:

 _Travel to Oman Au Shrine?_

 _Yes\No_

"...What?" Zelos' forehead wrinkled. "Travel... Is it gonna show me how to get there?"

"Why would we need that when we already have a map?" Sheena wondered.

"Got me," said Zelos, shrugging. "Eh, what the heck. Might as well figure out how this thing works." He tapped the "Yes" option. The Slate's screen responded by fading to a blank, brilliantly bright blue light. The rest of the Slate soon followed suit.

"Whoa!" Sheena yelped, shielding her eyes with one hand. She squinted and turned to face Zelos again. "What did you d-"

Her words caught in her throat, and her eyes widened.

Zelos was sitting stock-still beside her; his body was starting to glow the same color as the Slate. She just had time to see his expression of confusion and panic before all other color left him, and the light that now composed his body started breaking into strands that floated skyward and faded.

" _Zelos!_ "

In the span of two seconds, he had seemingly vanished from existence.

* * *

Regal's eyes were glued to his Slate as he frantically scanned the map. He almost panicked before Zelos' marker re-appeared at the blue icon Lloyd and Colette had gone to.

"What in the world..." He touched the icon.

 _Travel to Oman Au Shrine?_

 _Yes/No_

"...Extraordinary," he breathed. Back when he had been just the President of the Lezareno Company, Regal had thought of his hometown of Altamira as being especially advanced technologically. Seeing the computers and warp pads in the temples and in Cruxis' establishments had humbled him somewhat in that regard. Now, the little tablet he was holding had blown everything he had seen before out of the water.

 _Raine will be especially interested in this,_ he thought. _After seeing that half our group has wandered off, it might even placate her._

Regal looked up at the stars. In Aselia, he had been able to use the night sky to tell time. Here, however, the constellations were unfamiliar, and he could not be certain of the time. Still, he reasoned that his watch must be near over, and Raine would want to know about these developments sooner rather than later.

Keeping his Slate in hand, he got up from his post at the temple doorway and walked to Raine's side, shaking her shoulder gently. The half-elf sat up immediately, blinking tiredly. Evidently, she was a light sleeper.

"Is it that time already?" she asked.

Regal nodded. "I believe so." He held up his Slate for her to see. "You might want to take a look at this."

Raine covered her mouth and yawned, and then squinted at the screen in front of her. A few seconds later, her eyes widened and she shot up to her feet, rapidly looking around the camp.

"I was watching for monsters approaching us," Regal preempted. "I only just realized they had left."

The professor scowled and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I swear, that boy..."

"There is something else you will want to know," Regal interrupted, pointing at Zelos' marker. It had left the blue icon and gone back to where Sheena was. As they watched, it changed from yellow to bright blue and disappeared, only to re-appear in a flash of light back at the marker.

Raine shook her head, rubbed her eyes, and focused on the screen again. "What just happened?"

Again, Zelos vanished from the screen, this time materializing at the tower, and then again from the tower to the symbol marking the cave.

"As I thought," Regal murmured, rubbing his chin. He tapped the marker where Lloyd and Colette were, bringing up the travel prompt again. "Wherever one of these markings appears, the Slate allows us to go there instantaneously."

Raine's jaw dropped, but then her irate frown returned. "And of course Zelos is playing with it in the middle of the night." She promptly picked up her own Slate and started tapping on the screen.

Regal put his hand over it, raising one eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

Raine simply brushed his hand away. "I'm going over there to bring everyone back."

"We can't leave Presea and Genis here alone," Regal argued, "and I can't let you go alone."

"I won't be going alone," Raine countered. "I'll be teleporting directly to them and coming back here with them." At that, she made one last input on her Slate and de-materialized into blue light.

Regal stared at the space she had just been standing in. He realized that even if she had not left, he could not argue with her reasoning.

* * *

 _To you who sets foot in this shrine... I am Oman Au. In the name of the Goddess Hylia, I offer this trial._

As Lloyd and Colette discovered, the shrine did indeed lead them underground via elevator. The chamber it brought them to made them both simply stop and stare for a few minutes (once ghostly, resonating voice silenced). The floors and walls were perfectly smooth and, with the exception of orange lights shaped like constellations on the walls, plain. Every sound the two made seemed to echo softly around them. The space was filled with a soft light that poured in through what appeared to be skylights high above, despite the fact that it was nighttime out.

Colette instantly recognized the pedestal and stalactite arrangement she had seen atop the tower.

"So this is the same thing you put your Slate in that made the tower appear?" Lloyd asked, eyeing the pedestal's slot suspiciously.

Colette nodded. "Mhm. It gave us the map, too." She glanced around the room again. "Maybe this one will open that gate."

Lloyd shrugged. "Well, only one way to find out." He took his Slate from his belt and set it in the slot; the stone flipped it into place with its screen up.

Sheikah Slate authenticated.

Distilling information...

To Colette's surprise, the whatever-it-was skipped past the making-things-move bit and went straight to the blue runes running down the stalactite and the glowing droplet falling onto the Slate.

She frowned and tilted her head. "Huh. It didn't... _do_ anything this time."

Lloyd, however, was staring at it with his jaw hanging open. "... _Wow!_ That looked so cool!" He eagerly took his Slate back when the pedestal ejected it and observed the screen. An icon depicting a red horseshoe magnet appeared with some glowing text. Lloyd squinted as he attempted to pronounce some unfamiliar words. "Mag... mag...nessiss? Magnessiss Rune ack..."

Curious, Colette peered over his shoulder to read it for herself. "Magnesis... Magnesis Rune acquired? What's that mean?" A thought dawned on her, and she took out her own Slate and activated its screen. "...I have it now, too," she confirmed. "Just like the map from the tower."

Ever the curious one, Lloyd touched the symbol on his screen. The display changed to match the room behind the Slate. He moved it around experimentally, stopping when he was facing Colette and a perfect copy of her appeared on the screen. "Hey, it's like having one of those projector-things!" he exclaimed. He continued on, not much differently from a child playing with a new toy, until he got to the enormous metal slabs in the middle of the floor. Instead of silver and black, the screen displayed them in bright red, along with more text:

 _Target highlighted object and tap to activate_

 _Rotate Slate right to move further away, left to move closer_

 _Tap again to release_

Without hesitation, he tapped one of the slabs on the screen, and it turned from red to yellow.

A loud, booming noise startled the two of them and made Colette squeal. One of the slabs jumped even as they did, flying through the air before bumping and skidding against the floor. Lloyd immediately put away his Slate and drew his sword, prepared to take on whatever had made the thing move.

The slab fell flat once again, and then...

Nothing.

Slowly, ever so slowly, they both started to piece together what exactly had just happened. Colette, wanting to be sure, held up her Slate, selected the magnet icon, and tapped the red-colored projection of the second metal slab. She angled the tablet upward, and the slab followed her movements, rising high up into the air to fully uncover a large hole in the floor before settling back down in the corner she put it in.

"No way..." Lloyd breathed.

Colette walked to the edge of the hole and looked in; just a short drop below was another level, a walkway beside a deep pool, that passed under the gate they were stuck behind.

She held up her Slate again; its screen was again displaying the Magnesis Rune.

 _That voice when we came in here mentioned a trial..._ She held the tablet up for Lloyd to see. "I think this is how we get to that treasure."

Under this assumption, Lloyd and Colette both spent a few minutes practicing this new tool of theirs, moving the metal slabs every which way until they had a comfortable grasp of how to use it. At that point, they jumped down the hole in the floor and continued on. On the other side of the gate and up a flight of stairs, they came across a wall made up of large blocks, all stone except for one made of metal. Lloyd quickly figured out that they could simply shove the stone blocks out of the way with a metal one. Once the way was, clear, however...

"Whoa!" Lloyd exclaimed. "What is that thing?"

A strange object rested before them: disc-shaped, supported by three spider-like legs, with a dome on top of it. As they were still trying to figure out what exactly it was, a blue orb on the front of its dome began to glow brightly, seeming to draw energy from the very air around it.

Colette realized what was happening just in time. "Look out!" she cried, shoving Lloyd behind a stone block and tumbling after him; they landed in a heap behind the barrier. A beam of blue light shot through the space they had just been standing in and hit the wall behind them, creating a small explosion on impact.

"Are you okay?!" Colette asked frantically as she disentangled herself from Lloyd.

"Yeah..." Lloyd grunted, sitting up beside her. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks, Colette," he told her, smiling.

She sighed, laughing nervously. "That was close."

Lloyd got up and peeked around the corner of the block, just enough so he could see the machine barring their way again. "It reminds me of one of those Raybit-things the Desians had."

Colette ducked under him so she could see as well; the robot evidently could not quite target them like this. "It seems stronger, though," she said. "Like the bigger ones in the Tower of Salvation."

They both retreated fully behind cover, and Lloyd drew his sword and looked at it critically. "I don't think I'll be able to take it down with this thing," he decided. "How do we get past it?"

 _I could distract it while you-_ Colette shook her head and put that thought away before she could say it out loud; Lloyd would never stand for it. Instead, she looked around the room again. The area was littered with blocks; they might be able to move them and use them as cover at the same time, but there was no way to pull them from behind. The machine would have a clear shot once they were on the other side of it.

Then her eyes fell on a second metal block she had not noticed before, off in the corner, and she had an idea.

"Look at this!" she exclaimed, targeting the block with her Slate and pulling it toward herself with Magnesis. "We can use these as shields and go around it!"

Lloyd's eyebrows flew up, and he grinned mischievously. "Hey! That gives me a better idea!" He took out his Slate, used Magnesis on the other block, and lifted it into the air. "Cover me!"

Colette nodded and maneuvered her block around so they could stand behind it. Lloyd stepped out in front of the robot, adjusted his block's position, and jumped behind cover again before he got shot. After three more repetitions, he dropped it, and it landed with a metallic crunch.

Wary, Lloyd peered around at the robot. It was a twisted, sparking mess underneath the metal block.

He looked down at the Slate in his hand with a growing sense of awe. "...Someone just left these for us to find," he realized. "Why?"

"Whoever did it," Colette said with a smile, "we'll have to thank them for it."

Lloyd frowned and put his Slate back on his belt. "Not if it's the same one who put us in that cave."

Colette's smile vanished. "Oh... You're right."

The path ahead had them using a single metal slab to cross gaps between platforms over a lower level filled ankle-deep with water. At the far end of the chamber was an enormous pair of metal doors without knobs or handles, requiring them to use Magnesis to open them. On the other side was a smaller room, occupied by what looked almost like a cage with translucent blue walls; inside this structure was a pedestal, with an object sitting on it. Lloyd immediately rushed forward, thinking it must be the treasure they were looking for. He recoiled as soon as he got a better look at it.

It was shaped like a human (or an elf, judging by the pointed ears), but it was black and shriveled, as if it had been badly burned - except that its long white hair was still intact. It was adorned with a necklace and bracelets, and an eye tattoo on its forehead.

"Eugh!" Lloyd gagged, backing away further. "Is that... a dead body?"

Colette walked up the steps beside the tomb to get a closer look. "If it is," she reasoned, "maybe it has the treasure." She put one hand on the side of it as she tried to peer through the wall.

At her touch, the eye-shape that had been popping up all day appeared on the wall before her. Then, all four walls began glowing brightly.

Suddenly seized by panic, Lloyd dashed to Colette's side to pull her back, but his fear was misplaced. With a ringing sound, the walls shattered outward into little rods of pale blue light that floated through the air. They faded harmlessly whenever they touched the two teens.

"Wow..." Colette looked around the room, eyes wide with wonder at this light show.

 _...You are not the Hero._

She stiffened. It was the same soft, resonant voice that had spoken to them at the start of the shrine. Only now, it was slightly louder, more distinct, as if its source was nearby.

Lloyd's eyes snapped to the body on the pedestal, and he blanched. "Y-you're... _alive?_ "

 _I am Oman Au, a monk, the creator of this trial,_ the emaciated figure said, although it still sat stock-still; it did not even appear to be breathing. _I was enshrined here to await the coming of the Hero, should he ever require my aid. But you... You are not Hylian, nor Sheikah, nor Gerudo, nor any of the other races of Hyrule._

Lloyd blinked and shook his head. "We... don't know anything about any hero," he said. "We were just asked to find the treasure in this shrine so we can get off the plateau."

"If we can do that," Colette offered, "we can look for the hero for you. So... will you please help us?"

The echoes of her words faded to silence before Oman Au spoke again. _...Those Sheikah Slates you carry... If they were entrusted to you, then Hyrule's plight is darker than the prophecies foretold._

Lloyd looked perplexedly at the Slate on his belt. "Prophecies? What prophecies?"

 _...I am dedicated to helping those who seek to defeat Ganon,_ the monk said. _In the name of the Goddess Hylia, allow me to_ _reward your resourcefulness in overcoming this trial. Please accept this Spirit Orb._

Before Lloyd could ask what a Spirit Orb was, it materialized in front of Oman Au, seeming to flow out from him... or her, he really couldn't tell. Anyway, the orb itself was purple, with a peculiar winged crest. It appeared insubstantial, like a projection. As soon as it had fully formed, it started floating straight for Colette.

For a moment, Lloyd was back at the Martel Temple outside Iselia, and the monk before him was Remiel, "bestowing" the Cruxis Crystal on Colette...

He gasped and shook his head. Remiel was gone, but Lloyd's heart was still pounding.

Colette reached out to grasp the Spirit Orb, but it phased through her hand and continued on into her body, disappearing from sight with a flash of dim light. She put her hand on the spot, curious, as a strange sensation seemed flooded her veins - no, her very soul.

 _My duty is now fulfilled,_ Oman Au said. _May the Goddess smile upon you._ With this greeting, the monk's body began disintegrating, its body turning to dust with a soft blue glow and dispersing out of sight.

"They're... gone," Lloyd realized.

Colette stared at the pedestal, mouth agape, her hand still on her breastbone. "They just... gave it to us and... died."

Lloyd put a hand on her shoulder, his mind hard at work. "Okay, so... on one hand, how are we supposed to give that old guy the treasure if it's inside you? On the other..." They looked each other in the eyes. "Why did they give us that thing, anyway? It sounded like... it's part of something bigger."

"And that thing about them waiting for someone else... Who could it be?" Colette wondered.

Lloyd shook his head. "Well, we won't find out by staying in here," he decided. "We should head back to the temple before the others realize we're gone."


	5. Chapter 5

_Prologue: The Great Plateau_

 _Chapter 5_

For a moment, Zelos thought was dying. First, his entire body went numb, and he became unable to move, as if paralyzed. Next, he lost his hearing and eyesight, and even smell. The only sensations he was aware of were a feeling of weightlessness and his own panic.

He did not know how long that experience lasted, but at some point, the effects reversed themselves: he felt himself being pulled to the ground again; his hearing, eyesight, and smell returned; and the paralysis wore off.

Dizzy, he fell forward, bruising his knees and dropping his Slate to catch himself with his hands.

"Urgh... Dude, what the..." He shook off the urge to vomit and forced himself back up to his feet. After a moment, he could see straight again, and he realized where he was: at the entrance to the shrine.

"Wait... _Travel?_ " He grabbed his Slate off the ground and examined the map. His eyes slowly widened, and his mouth spread into a large, excited grin.

Thinking quickly, he re-oriented himself and started jogging back toward the forest where Sheena was hiding. "Hey, hunny!" he called loudly. "You miss me?"

The bushes rustled as the ninja shot up to her feet. "Zelos?!" she exclaimed, and she ran out to meet him. When they were close enough, he could see that her eyes were wetter than usual. Still, the scowl she gave him would have cowed the average warrior. "What did you just do?! You nearly gave me a heart attack! Give me one good reason not to smack you into next week!"

Zelos just laughed and waved one hand; how could she still think her threats scared him? "I'll give you three good reasons, but first, I wanna show you something. Watch your map for a sec'."

Confused, and still getting over her near-panic, Sheena did as he said, staring intently at the map on her Slate. While she did so, Zelos found the shrine's marker on his own map and tapped it again.

 _Travel to Oman Au Shrine?_

 _Yes/No_

He chose the "Yes" option just as Sheena was looking up again. All his senses went blank and he floated, only to find himself once again standing at the foot of the shrine.

This time, Sheena was visible from where he was standing. "Yoo-hoo!" he trilled to her playfully.

"You _idiot!_ " Sheena yelled, and she started sprinting for him as fast as her feet would carry her. "I'm going to-"

Whatever her threat was, Zelos did not hear it; this time, he chose the Great Plateau Tower's marker and found himself standing at its peak.

Laughing with excitement at his discovery, he found the map's third marker and selected it, just to make sure. Another warp later, he was back in the central chamber of the cave where the group had awakened.

"All _right!_ " he crowed; the tunnels around him echoed his voice back to him eightfold.

Still chuckling to himself, Zelos checked his map to make sure Sheena was not following him; she was standing near the shrine, probably waiting for him to come back.

It was supposed to be simple. Zelos was going to warp himself back down to the shrine and pester Sheena about what a breakthrough this Slate could be for his late-night "conquests." Sheena would get mad and hit him or something. He would get a kick out of it.

That's what was _supposed_ to happen.

As soon as the floating sensation of teleporting was gone and he found himself at the shrine, however, he was greeted with one of Raine's angry-teacher-death-glares.

" _AAA_ aahh, hey, Raine! What brings you out here so late?" he asked, trying to brush off the fact that she had startled him.

"We need to talk," Raine said curtly, snatching Zelos' Slate from his hands.

He gulped nervously. She was a sight shorter than him, and nowhere near as violent as Sheena, but for some reason, Raine was _by far_ the scariest member of the group when she got mad.

Raine turned to face away from the shrine. "Sheena," she called, "I know you're out there. If you don't come out now, we'll just have this discussion later."

For a moment, there was relative silence. Then, the ninja stood up from behind a chunk of building rubble and stalked toward them, glowering at Zelos all the while.

"I came out here to make sure Lloyd and Colette were okay," she announced before Raine could launch into a lecture. "They went to see the old man, and he brought them here."

"And you just let them. Where are they now?" Raine asked sharply.

Sheena showed the professor her map, unfazed. "It looks like they're underground. I think that's where that shrine leads."

Raine turned again to look at the shrine - really _look_ at it - for the first time. The change was palpable as her attention shifted away from Sheena and Zelos and toward the glowing structure. Soon, as she started examining it more closely, her two companions seemed to leave her mind completely. Zelos would have made a run for it, if she were not still holding his Slate.

"Fascinating..." she murmured, feeling the shrine's surface. "I've never seen building material like this before... It's not any kind of stone, that's for certain. So is it metal, or some form of polycarbonate? I'll have to ask Genis to try using magic on it to see if-" She snapped out of it at this thought and fell silent.

Zelos shifted his weight from one leg to the other. "You know, the tower looked like it was made of the same stuff," he pointed out. "You didn't notice anything strange about it then?"

Raine only gave him a steely glare in response before stepping over the shrine's threshold and peering into the hole in its floor. "I can't see anything in there. How are we supposed to follow Lloyd and Colette down there?"

"Ho, there!"

All three of them looked up at the sky at the familiar voice. "Oh, not again..." Zelos muttered under his breath. Sure enough, though, there was the old man gliding down toward them, his form blotting out a few stars at a time as he descended.

Zelos scowled at the man and rested a fist on his hip as the old man landed. "No offense, gramps, but we're kind of in the middle of something."

"Is that right?" the man asked, collapsing his paraglider and taking up his lantern. "It looks to me like you're only just beginning. What brings you all out here?"

Raine, initially puzzled but choosing to ignore the man's observation, folded her arms. "You brought two of our companions here," she stated firmly. "Why? Does it have to do with that treasure you mentioned before?"

"Lloyd and Colette?" The man rested his hands on his cane beside his lantern and nodded. "They approached me and asked me to show them where the treasure can be found."

"You must have realized we would have objected to this had we known about it," Raine said accusingly, her eyes narrowing.

"I did," the man said with a nod, "and so did they." He abruptly turned his attention to Sheena. "I should apologize for letting you follow behind us in the dark." Sheena startled, staring bug-eyed at him. "I would have invited you to join us in the light, but you were moving so swiftly and silently that no monster could have detected you anyway."

Raine glanced at Sheena before addressing the man again. "We haven't yet reached a decision on your request," Raine said in a clipped tone. "So if you would, kindly refrain from going behind our backs again."

"I haven't done so thus far, and I'm not about to start," the man answered, and Zelos, for the life of him, couldn't detect even a hint of spite or irritation in his voice. "In any event, I will stay with you three until your friends return and escort you back to the temple, if you wish."

Raine simply re-positioned herself to where both the man and the shrine's entrance were in her field of vision. "Do as you will," she told him dismissively.

* * *

Imagine Lloyd's surprise when he and Colette arrived back at the surface to this scene.

"Wha-?! Professor? Zelos? Sheena? What are you all doing here?!" he stammered as the elevator came to a stop.

"Interesting question, bud!" Zelos quipped with a cocky grin. "We could ask you the same thing! Sneaking out is one thing, but dragging sweet, innocent Colette into it- OW!"

Raine and Sheena, without even looking at him, had each grabbed and twisted one of his ears. "Yeah, what kind of person would _do_ that, Zelos?" Sheena asked dryly before they released him.

Colette winced at Zelos' pain. She wasn't quite sure what he'd done to deserve it, but she quickly rallied and stepped in front of Lloyd. "Lloyd was going to come alone," she said, speaking primarily to Raine. "I decided to come with him. We both decided."

Raine crossed her arms sternly. Though Colette's desire to defend Lloyd was admirable, in this case, it meant she would have to share the blame with him. "In the middle of the night, in a place we don't know, with people we don't know, without telling us? What if something had happened to you two down there? How long would we have gone wondering what became of you?"

Every objection Raine raised caused Colette's head to dip lower and lower in shame, until she could no longer see her teacher's face. The professor's heart broke a little at the sight of her; the poor girl rarely needed to be reprimanded, but she never did handle the guilt well when she did.

Lloyd, on the other hand...

"Professor Sage, we're fine!" he protested impatiently, stepping around Colette to stand beside her. "And if we _had_ gotten hurt or stuck somewhere, you could have just looked where we were on the map and followed us!"

"And then what?" Raine asked him critically. "Without mana, I can't use healing magic. Injuries that I could have healed in less than a second before could have fatal consequences now."

"For that matter, none of us are as strong as we were before," Sheena pointed out. "We all need to be more careful. A risk like this is usually something we decide on together."

"I know that," Lloyd said earnestly, feeling a twinge of regret. "But we couldn't all agree this time. That's why I didn't ask anyone to come with me. I didn't want to split everyone up."

"Whoa, Lloyd, what are you saying?" Zelos asked with raised eyebrows. "You thought we might break up the band over this?"

Lloyd lowered his head and shrugged helplessly. "I've made up my mind. I want to get off this plateau and help stop the calamity. I didn't want to make anyone feel like they had to come if they didn't want to, or leave anyone alone if some decided to join me."

Raine held her peace for a moment while she proceeded this. "You're telling us that you intend to trust this man and go on this mission regardless of what the rest of us think?"

Colette finally looked up at Raine again, her eyes pleading sadly. "He told us the truth, Professor," she said softly. "We can trust him."

Raine quietly regarded Colette and Lloyd for a while, her expression serious, masking her thoughts from them. Sheena fidgeted in place, glancing between the three of them, while Zelos studied the luminous blue patterns on the shrine to avoid eye contact with any of them.

Lloyd held his breath without meaning to. What came next would decide the future of their group; of that, he was certain.

Finally, with a sigh, Raine seemed to deflate a little. "We'll still need to discuss our next move as a group," she declared. "For now, what did you find in the shrine?"

Lloyd sighed with relief and gasped for air as Colette began giving a recap of what had transpired underground. She told them about the Slates' new Magnesis ability and demonstrated it on Lloyd's sword; she described the robot they had encountered and how they had defeated it; and finally, she told them about the words of the monk who had been entombed there.

"And where is this Spirit Orb now?" Zelos asked, stealing a glance at the old man waiting patiently beside them.

"It, uh..." Colette felt her torso in a few places, hoping that it would re-materialize so she wouldn't have to explain. "It kind of... went inside me, I think..."

Zelos, Raine, and Sheena all reacted with various levels of surprise and incredulity, but before anyone else could speak, the old man stepped forward. "If you use the Sheikah Slate to check your inventory," he said calmly, "it should indicate that you do, indeed, now possess the Spirit Orb. You need not worry; it can do nothing as long as you possess it."

"Inventory?" Sheena echoed, reaching for her own Slate. "You mean these things keep track of our stuff, too?"

"More than that," the man answered, "the Slate is able to hold things for you - more than you could reasonably carry on your own."

For all her suspicion, Raine simply could not stop the questions once her interest was sparked. "How is technology like this possible if the land is in a state of ruin, as you said?"

"Because it dates back to long before the Calamity," the man told her, stepping into their midst and resting his hands on his cane. "The Slates, the shrines, and the towers - they are all connected. Many millennia ago, a highly advanced tribe called the Sheikah inhabited these lands. The great power of their wisdom saved this kingdom time and time again. But their ancient technology disappeared long ago..." He inclined his head toward the shrine. "Until now, it seems."

Raine listened with rapt attention until a loud noise distracted her. She turned to find Lloyd, snoring, still on his feet. She rolled her eyes and gave him a hearty slap across the face to wake him. "And these Sheikah people were the ones responsible for making the Slates, as well as the shrines and towers?"

"Indeed they were," the man answered with a nod. "These shrines lay tucked away in numerous places all across the land. On this plateau alone, there are still three more. If you will bring me the treasure from each of them, then I will give you my paraglider."

Hearing that snapped Lloyd out of his lingering drowsiness, and he bristled. "Hey, wait a second!" he protested. "You said you'd give it to us for the treasure from _this_ shrine!"

"Oh?" The man sounded confused, despite the knowing look he was giving Lloyd. "I suppose I changed my mind. Bring the four Spirit Orbs from the plateau's shrines, and I give you my word, you may have my paraglider."

"Not so fast, pal," Zelos cut in, looking and sounding ready to be done with the matter for the night. "The rest of us still haven't agreed to this little scavenger hunt, and personally, I'm not really open to discussing it tonight."

"Zelos is right," Raine concurred, folding her arms. "We all need to go back to our camp and get some sleep. We'll talk it over once more in the morning and bring you our answer." She moved closer to the man, looking him full in the face with eyes hard as flint. "We'll keep the Spirit Orb for now, but if it hurts Colette in any way, you'll have hell to pay."

"Of course," the man said with a nod. "Find me atop the tower when you're ready. I couldn't help but notice that you have already discovered the shortcut."

"The shortcut?" Colette asked, and she shared a perplexed glance with Lloyd.

"We'll explain later," Sheena promised, and she gave Zelos the stinkeye. "There's been enough playing around with it tonight."

"Not sure I know what you're talking about," Zelos retorted grumpily.

* * *

As he'd said he would, the old man escorted the five of them back to the courtyard of the Temple of Time before taking his leave of them. Raine told Regal they would convene again in the morning, and that was the end of it for the night.

At sunrise on the following day, Sheena got up early to procure a breakfast of poultry meat and eggs. The Aselians sat in a circle around their campfire inside the temple to eat, and then the five who had gone out the night before informed the rest of what they had done, seen, and learned.

There was a long silence once everything had been said as each of them took time to process it all.

"It sounds as though this monk was waiting for someone in particular," Regal thought aloud. "Was this Spirit Orb intended for someone else, then?"

Colette fidgeted where she sat between Lloyd and Sheena and glanced around at the others. The fact that Regal was the one to voice his thoughts first didn't bode well.

"That seems plausible," Raine agreed. "Given that we still don't know what it is or what it does, the idea of finding three more for that man feels less and less appealing."

"But you're gonna do it anyway, Lloyd?" Genis asked, peering around Colette to eye his friend uncertainly.

Lloyd lowered his eyes and sighed. "... Yeah," he stated. "Changing the deal was kind of dirty, but other than that, I don't think he's been lying to us." He looked up at his friends again, a determined light in his gaze. "Besides, we can't really stay up here, can we?"

"... Whether or not that guy is telling the truth," Sheena asserted, "I gotta agree with you there." She turned to Raine with a shrug. "There's obviously no civilization near here except for those pig-monsters. Either he's been lying to us and we need to find someone to tell us what's really going on, or he told us the truth and we need to get down from here and..." She faltered and shrank back a little. "... and do... _something_."

"Like finding our way back to Aselia," Zelos said firmly.

"Only the elves and half-elves would know us."

All eyes snapped to Presea. This was the first time she had spoken since the night before. She had a glowering expression, but her gaze was distant, avoiding eye contact with anyone else.

"If it really has been one hundred years," she continued in a low voice, "Aselia will have moved on without us. I think I want to go back, but more than that, I want to know how and why we came to be here. If the man we met yesterday cannot tell us, I want to find someone who can."

"Presea is right," Regal agreed. "Learning why we are in Hyrule will help us decide our next course, and learning why may be the key to returning to Aselia."

"One problem with that," Zelos pointed out. "If it's been a hundred years, who's to say anyone from when we came here is still alive to tell us?"

"Where would we even start looking for someone like that?" Genis wondered.

Lloyd got up to his feet and spread his hands to entreat them. "I don't know," he said honestly. "And that's the biggest problem right now. There's too much we don't know. I know that making a move at a time like this can be a mistake, but we won't find out anything by staying on this plateau and talking about it!" He let his arms fall to his sides again and looked around at each of the others. Colette, Regal, Presea, and Sheena were all watching him intently, while Raine, Zelos, and Genis avoided his gaze. "We can start by finding out once and for all if what the man told us is true. If it is, and the calamity is going to destroy this world, I've decided to do whatever I can to stop it."

No one else said anything for a long moment, until Raine gave a heavy sigh.

"When it came to times like this during the World Regeneration," she said, "when we were at a crossroads and needed to decide which path to take, each of us decided for ourselves whether to move forward with a given plan of action, or to take our leave of the group. This isn't like any of those times. If one of us doesn't want to continue on, they can't just return home. We're in a strange land with strange rules. We have nowhere to go back to."

"Raine, what are you saying?" Genis asked in disbelief.

"I'm saying that whatever we do, the most important thing right now is that we stay together," she answered, sounding resigned.

"Does that mean you're gonna just go along with Lloyd's plan, then?" Zelos asked, earning a mild glare from Sheena.

"What I'm suggesting is that we all find a way down from this plateau and look for answers together," she stated. "If the only way to do that is to give the man the Spirit Orbs and make a trade with him... then so be it."

Lloyd gave the professor a grateful, apologetic smile.

"... All right," Genis said, "I'll help, too. Raine is right; we _can't_ split up now."

"I'll stay with you, Lloyd!" Colette volunteered, beaming at him.

"No surprise there," Zelos chuckled.

"You can count me in," Sheena declared.

"I will go as well," said Regal.

Presea gave a nod. "So will I."

Lloyd's grin widened, a thrill coursing through him. When they had first awoken the day before, he had taken it for granted that they would solve this mystery and return home together. Now, after the unity of the group had been threatened, he found himself remembering just how grateful here was to have each of them at his side, to call them allies and friends. There was still one holdout, though.

Everyone turned their attention to Zelos. At first, he said nothing and didn't look back at any of them. What he might be thinking, none of them could be sure.

Finally, he raised a finger. "I have one condition," he announced.

"What's that?" Lloyd asked, feeling a touch of apprehension again.

Zelos lowered his hand to pick at his ragged shirt. "If we find any decent clothes, I get first pick."

Lloyd let out a breath that was part sigh, part laugh. "It's a deal!"

"I guess we need to go talk to that man again, then," Genis said, standing up. "So, how do we use the Slate to teleport?"

* * *

A short time later, at the top of the plateau tower, Genis materialized from floating strands of blue light. As soon as he had control of his body again, he stumbled to his knees, swaying from side to side. "Whoa... That was... _weird_..."

There was the sound of soft laughter. "Perhaps, though it _is_ quite useful. Wouldn't you agree?"

Still disoriented, Genis gave the old man an irritated grunt as more lights appeared around him, and his friends alighted on the tower one by one. "How did you get up here, anyway?" he asked incredulously. "Don't tell me you _climbed_ up!"

"Oh, I have my ways," the man said placidly. He regarded each member of the party with a dip of his head as they arrived. "I hope you all are well-rested after having such a trying time yesterday."

"We've decided to gather the Spirit Orbs," Raine told him brusquely, arms folded. "Just to be clear, the deal is that we will give you four of them in exchange for your paraglider, correct?"

"Again, you have my word," the man confirmed. "Now, then, the reason I asked you to come up here... These towers, aside from completing your map of a region, are excellent vantage points for observing the surrounding landscape. If you would, please lift your Sheikah Slates and watch their displays. Touch the eye symbol."

Colette did as he asked, and the Slate's map disappeared, replaced by an image of the landscape before her. She wondered at first if the man was showing them another rune, but her companions interrupted her thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, wow!"

"Fascinating...!"

"It's reminiscent of a telescope."

Concrete suppressed a giggle as she realized what had happened, and she lowered her Slate and returned it to the map. She had been living with enhanced senses for so long that it was easy to forget about them at times. The effects of the lens, as exciting as they were to her friends, were more or less lost on her. She could see just about as far and with a much wider field of vision without it.

"There's another shrine!" Sheena exclaimed. Colette followed her pointed finger toward a snow-capped mountain in the distance. At its peak was the little structure with its telltale orange glow.

"I see another on the cliff," Presea said.

"Now, try touching the image of one of those shrines," the man instructed. "It will place a pin at that place on the map."

Just as Colette raised her Slate again to try this, two brightly-colored markings appeared on her map.

"If you see something interesting from afar," the man explained, "you can use a pin to mark it on your map and investigate it later. I believe you can only use five pins at a time, but pins can be replaced with different markings so they can be used again."

Well, if the scope wasn't all that useful to Colette on its own, _this_ feature certainly sounded worthwhile.

"So there's still one more shrine around here?" Genis asked, walking around the top of the tower and sweeping his gaze over the landscape. "... Aha! There it is! In those ruins down there!"

"Well, that one's nice and close by!" Zelos noted, marking the location with a third pin. "Might as well head down there first and get it knocked out of the way, huh?"

"It might be relatively close to the tower," Raine said pensively, "but unless we climb down from here, we'll have to teleport further away from it to get back down to the ground."

"Would it be better for us to go to each shrine together, or should we split into smaller groups?" Regal asked.

"That, I leave to you," the old man answered. "But a word of caution: reaching the shrines may prove more hazardous than it seems. With adequate preparation, though, I believe no challenge you encounter in Hyrule will stop you. For now, I must take my leave, but I will be nearby should you need me." He unfolded his paraglider and walked to the edge of the tower.

"A word of caution for you, as well," Presea said suddenly, and the man stopped and turned to face her. "We are choosing to trust you for now," she told him icily. "If you betray that trust, you will answer to us all."

The man nodded gravely. "Of that, you need not fear." With that, he stepped off the tower, gliding toward a dense forest to the south.

"'More hazardous than it seems?'" Sheena repeated, placing a fist on her hip. "Well, that could mean anything!"

"Yes... It sounds to me like we won't be able to just rush haphazardly to the shrines," Raine deduced, resting her chin on hey knuckles.

"Then we'll need to approach them with caution," Regal said. "Perhaps we should simply scout out each location for now, and then make a plan to enter the shrines tomorrow."

"Makes sense to me," Zelos remarked with a shrug. "'Haste makes waste' and all that."

"We _could_ split up to check out the shrines," Genis said, "but the problem with that is that most of us still don't have any weapons."

"But we _do_ have enough weapons for about half of us," Sheena asserted, glancing around the group. "We can send one group to each shrine and give weapons to at least one person in each group."

Lloyd scratched his head in thought and shrugged. "Some of the Bokoblins yesterday were just using sticks, too," he recalled. "If all else fails, even that would be better than nothing."

"It is still early in the day," Presea observed, squinting as she checked where the sun stood in the sky to the east. "It may be prudent for those going to the closer shrines to familiarize themselves with our available weapons before setting out."

Raine thought in silence for a moment and nodded. "In that case, Lloyd, if you give your sword to Zelos, he and Sheena can get a head start toward the shrine on the mountain."

" _What?"_ Sheena and Zelos blurted out in unison. Sheena looked wide-eyed at Zelos, but Zelos' gaze turned to the shrine in question.

"Presea," Raine continued, "you and I can go see about the one on the cliff. Genis, Regal, would you investigate the shrine in the ruins?"

Regal gave Genis an inquiring look and got an amicable shrug in response. "We'd be glad to," the former convict told Raine.

Meanwhile, Lloyd was counting on his fingers and realizing something wasn't adding up. "... Hang on," he said, "what about me and Colette?"

* * *

"I just _had_ to ask," Lloyd grumbled as he worked.

Colette stood a few paces away from him, aiming a bow down the length of the temple and trying to emulate the form Regal had shown her. "This isn't so bad," she said cheerfully, relaxing the bowstring and turning to face him. "Learning how to do new things is fun!"

"Yeah, but this isn't new," Lloyd sighed grumpily. He compared the fletching on an arrow he had scavenged with his own handiwork; satisfied, he added the new arrow to a small stack on the floor beside him. "I know we're probably gonna need all the arrows we can get, but I'm pretty sure this is punishment for sneaking out last night."

"Maybe Professor Raine just wanted us to rest after being out so late," Colette opined before taking aim with her bow again.

At the far end of the temple, at the feet of the statue therein, three apples sat side by side on top of a marble brick. Gauging the distance once more, Colette aimed a little higher and released an arrow with a _twang_.

The dart arced through the air toward the apples, but Colette could tell she had missed her target even before it fell short and skittered across the floor. She felt only a pang of disappointment before happily shrugging it off and going to retrieve the arrow to try again.

"Doesn't that hurt your fingers?" Lloyd asked as she returned to her starting position.

Colette gingerly ran her thumb over the crease the bowstring was carving into her fingertips. "Maybe a little," she said honestly. "If I do it enough, though, my fingers will get stronger, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Lloyd answered, "but you also need to be careful and pace yourself. Dad always used to tell me our limits can't be broken, but you can push them and move them."

Even as he said it, a shadow seemed to pass over Lloyd's heart, and in his mind's eye he could see a stout, bearded face smiling at him warmly.

 _Dad..._

A commotion somewhere behind him snapped him out of it. He dropped what he was doing, jumped to his feet, and spun around wielding a Boko club. No sooner had he done this than someone darted into the temple through the front doors.

Lloyd immediately lowered his club in surprise. "Genis?!"

The young warlock promptly tripped and fell, sliding facefirst across the floor. Hot on his heels, Regal dashed inside as well.

Colette winced at Genis' faceplant and trotted to his side. "Are you okay, Genis?" she asked, looking over both of them briefly. "You two weren't gone very long... What happened?"

Genis lifted his head off the floor; his face was paler than normal, his eyes wide, his breath shuddering, and his whole body trembling.

"We... almost died... just now," he panted.

* * *

 _ **Earlier...**_

Genis and Regal had accompanied Lloyd and Colette back to the temple when the other two groups set out so that Real could give Colette and Genis a crash course in archery. Granted, he wasn't especially skilled at it himself, but he had dabbled in the sport in years past and knew the correct form. After two hours or so, Genis could reliably hit a target from five meters away, and he and Regal went to find their shrine. As expected, they had reached their destination in a matter of minutes: a grassy area with a cluster of stone ruins, consisting of crumbling stone walls, empty doorways, and peculiar structures scattered here and there, almost resembling upside-down clay jars with ridged tendrils.

"I can see the shrine from here," Genis observed as he slid down a short dirt ridge to the grass below. Regal jumped down behind him and glanced around, alert but not to the point of being wary yet. At the moment, he was more curious of their alien surroundings than anything else.

"These don't appear to be part of any building," Regal thought aloud, walking over to one of the large pot-shaped objects. He eyed one of the tendrils extending from it and brushed his hand over it. His suspicion was confirmed by the abnormally cool feel of its surface. "... It's made of metal."

Genis paused to look the structure up and down for a moment. "That's... weird," he remarked. "Was it some kind of machine, then?"

"The other ruins we've seen so far have been wood and stone," Regal said with a nod, "so it most likely was a machine rather than a building."

"In a place like this?" Genis questioned, looking at the rest of the surrounding ruins. "But everything else seems to be made of wood and stone!"

"Hm..." Regal frowned thoughtfully and touched the Sheikah Slate at his hip. "Not everything..."

Genis, not catching his comment, could only shake his head and shrug. "Oh, well. I'll have to tell Raine about it and see what she thinks. We should probably head for the shrine and see what's up."

Regal gave a nod and put his musings away. "Yes, of course." He turned to join the young half elf and venture further into the ruins.

They didn't get far before a harsh, unnatural sound caught their attention. After a moment of frantic glancing around for the source, Regal placed it as reminding him of steel gears turning. Not a second later, he spotted it.

One of the pot-shaped objects was moving. It had no visible tendrils and seemed to stick awkwardly out of the ground, not unlike the shrines they were looking for. Patterns of bright orange light adorned part of its surface, as well, but the similarities stopped there. The upper half of the structure was rotating, causing the metallic sound. Then, it turned around fully so that a blue, ring-shaped light was facing them. Genis was immediately reminded of an eye.

"Whoa!" he cried, jumping back.

"It's..."

Before Regal could finish his thought, the orange lights on the ancient machine - what else could it possibly be? - turned a familiar sickly red color. It pivoted back and forth, the "eye" moving between the two wanderers before settling on Regal. A narrow beam of red light shined out of it, pointed straight at Regal's chest, and the machine started to make a rapid, high-pitched ticking sound.

Regal's heart skipped a beat, and his eyes widened in a moment of panic, but he lost no time. "RUN!"

He didn't give Genis the chance, however. He jumped into a sprint, scooping up the warlock and slinging him over his shoulder without missing a step, much to Genis' displeasure.

"HEY! Put me down!" Genis yelled, but Regal surged on, deeper into the ruins. He reached the end of a wall and rounded a corner-

-and a blue beam of light shot out behind him, missing him by centimeters and exploding on impact with another wall.

Regal had barely set a badly startled Genis back on his feet when the ticking sound started again.

Genis quickly spotted a second machine, staring directly at him with its single blue "eye" and marking him with its laser. "Another one?! What are these things?!"

"We have to get out of here! Back to the temple!"

The two of them ducked back around the corner from where they'd come, safe from the second machine, but back in the sights of the first.

"I'll distract it!" Regal shouted as the red light shined on him again. "You go on ahead, as quickly as you can!"

"What?! Regal, no!"

The former convict ignored Genis' protest and split off away from him, drawing the robot's attention away from Genis and their way back to the temple.

One part grudgingly, three parts frantically, Genis ran as fast as his legs could carry him, retracing his steps away from the ruins. He didn't get very far before he ran into a bit of a problem.

The dirt slope he had slid down to get here was taller than he was.

Panting, he looked left and right, looking for the quickest way up. Right was in the direction of the temple, but-

A red dot appeared on the slope before him, and his blood seemed to freeze.

There was no time to find an easier way. The only way out was up.

Genis jumped as high as he possibly could and scrambled up the wall, his hands grasping at every protruding rock they found and his feet sending cascades of dirt to the ground. He was climbing too slowly, he wasn't going to make it-

Then, just when he was sure he was too late, he felt the grass at the top between his fingers and clawed his way up and over the edge. He fell flat on the ground in his haste, and an instant later, a blue laser blasted the hillside in front of him.


End file.
